


sights steady on you

by breeeliss



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allurance Big Bang 2018, Dorm Life - Freeform, F/M, Fighter Pilot!Allura, Fighter Pilot!Lance, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Galaxy Garrison AU, Human!Allura, Humor, Pidge (mentioned) - Freeform, Romance, Slow Burn, shiro (mentioned) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 14:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15221432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeeliss/pseuds/breeeliss
Summary: Allura whacked him with one of his pillows. “You believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself, and it was thanks to you that I even got this far. So, no, I’m not going to watch you sit here feeling sorry for yourself while your dreams slip from your fingers. Get up! I’m not giving up on you. You’re going to become a fighter pilot.”An AU where Allura and Lance are both cadets at the Galaxy Garrison gunning for the elusive Fighter Class piloting program.





	sights steady on you

**Author's Note:**

> my piece for the [allurance big bang](https://allurancebigbang.tumblr.com/) ! also my first "official" allurance fic which ended up being a beast of a break out fic but oh well. 
> 
> also wanted to thank [bee-boh-bees](https://bee-boh-bees.tumblr.com/) so so much for all of the beautiful art they created for this story (and for being such a trooper and going off of my half-assed descriptions of the scenes i had in my head because i was such a slow writer lol orz). PLEASE PLEASE reblog the original posts back to their art and do not repost anything in this fic. they worked so hard on all this art and i really recommend going and supporting the rest of their art because they're so wonderful and talented. links will be below for you all! hope you enjoy!
> 
> bee-boh-bee's art: [ [x](https://bee-boh-bees.tumblr.com/post/175696400933/heyo-these-are-my-pieces-for-breeeliss-fic) ]

“Good grief! These barracks are atrociously small, aren’t they?”

Allura finished spinning her tablet around the room and set it back down in her lap. “It’s a room for only one person, Coran. They’re supposed to be small.” 

“Nonsense.” Coran squinted into his web camera. “When I had my own room in engineering school, it was at least twice the size of this one. I had room for my own lounging couch. Don’t you know  _ my _ room was a hot hang out spot back in the day.” 

“I don’t plan on entertaining much in here,” Allura joked. “Just sleeping and studying. Besides, considering the shoddy lottery number I got, I suppose this was all that was left for me.” 

Truthfully, it was a blessing in disguise. Allura didn’t feel like explaining to a potential roommate why all she’d done for the past two days was sleep off her jetlag and binge Netflix instead of unpacking or reading her student handbook. 

That was the sort of thing you didn’t need an audience for. 

“Well, how have you been settling in otherwise?” Coran asked. “Met anyone interesting?” 

Allura shoved aside one of her unpacked suitcases and laid across her bare mattress. The takeout she’d ordered was still sitting on the floor, so she quietly opened the tupperware while she spoke. “It’s mostly international students on campus. Domestic students come tomorrow, so I imagine it’ll be a bit busier. I did meet a couple of people at the mess hall today.” 

“And how’s the food?” 

“Ah...it’s passable, I suppose.” They’d slid the pre-orientation menu under her door this morning, and everything  _ sounded _ appetizing. But the thought of having to suffer through the company of others wasn’t particularly appealing at the moment. Besides, she was having a decent enough time sampling the takeout menu from the Cuban restaurant from the next town over anyway. 

“And you’re all unpacked?” 

Allura stirred the food around with her fork to let it cool and subtly turned the camera away from her pile of undisturbed luggage. “Yeah. It’s a little bare now, but they’ll be sending shuttles into town tomorrow so I can buy some extra things to pretty up the place.” 

“That’s wonderful. It sounds like you’re settling in just fine. Remember to get enough rest and not skip any meals, alright?”

She almost snorted when she remembered the fourteen hours she’d slept last night and all the takeout she’d inhaled. “I promise.” 

Coran visibly hesitated before he rummaged around the papers on his desk. “I didn’t want to do this over FaceTime, but you’ll be getting calls about this soon, so I figured I’d warn you. The money that your parents left to you in their will just got transferred to your new bank account today. It’s all in American dollars since you said you wanted to have access to it while you were studying in the states. Is that still okay?” 

The will reading was still a huge blur for Allura, and she couldn’t remember half of what she discussed with the family lawyer, let alone whether she wanted her inheritance in dollars or pounds. “Remind me how much it was again?” 

“Just short of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Coran read off. “I used a bit of it to finish paying the renovations we talked about doing on the house they left you. So no need to find a place to live if you decide to come back to London.” 

“Brilliant…” 

Coran wilted. “I know this is the last thing you want to be talking about, Allura. But it’s important we get your finances in order now that you’re off on your own.” 

“I know, I know. I appreciate you telling me. I’ll see if I can stick some of it in savings and start paying off the bills for school. Get my books. Things like that.” 

“Are you alright Allura?” Coran asked. “I’m sure there’s a way for me to call up your old therapist and maybe arrange some Skype calls — ”

“It’s fine, Coran,” Allura assured. “It’s just a strange adjustment, all this. Once classes start, I’ll be too distracted to be upset.” 

He didn’t look convinced, but Allura was looking down and digging into her food to keep from continuing the topic. “If you say so. Just remember, I’m always here if you need to talk.” 

“I know,” Allura smiled weakly. “We’ll still talk every Sunday night.” 

“I trust you.” He clicked off his desk lamps. “Well, I’ll let you get off to bed. Be sure to text me and let me know how your first day of classes goes. And try to stay healthy for your physical examinations coming up. You’ve got to pass those with flying colors if you still expect to pass your pilot placement test. Pun intended.” 

She snorted at his exaggerated wink. “I’ll be careful.” 

Allura blew a few kisses at the screen before she hung up and pulled up the last episode of the show she’d been watching. She heard people running in the halls before someone pounded on her door and screamed something about a surprise Star Trek viewing party happening in the common area down the hall, but she wasn’t sure she could put in the enthusiasm for a roomful of people yet. 

She wrapped herself up with her blanket and turned up the volume on her tablet to drown out the noise outside. 

* * *

 

Alfor had talked about Allura applying to the Galaxy Garrison long before she’d even applied for her first year of preliminary flight school training. It was ranked as the best astroexploration program in the world, and it also happened to be where he’d gotten certified as a fighter pilot. She’d grown up with stories of him successfully piloting a crew to a recently undiscovered astral body and helping researchers uncover evidence of extraterrestrial life in their own solar system, and he relayed them all with the confidence of an epic hero spinning tales of his visits to far off lands. 

But more dazzling than the unknown was the pride Alfor held for all the good he’d accomplished. All the rapidly advancing research, all the new avenues for innovation, all the dazzling discoveries set to change the way mankind understands the universe they occupy — it was all possible because of his service and the service of dozens of other Galaxy Garrison officers. 

Allura didn’t want to be stuck in an engineering room, didn’t want to be glued to comms radios, didn’t want to carry cargo from Earth’s moon and back. She wanted to be in the thick of it. She wanted to reach farther than her father did to make him proud. She wanted to make a difference. 

Of course it was easily said when she was writing her application essays to get into the program in the first place. But it was quite another thing to dress herself up in her Garrison uniform and pledge to a roomful of senior officers to live up to all that she’d promised. 

The convocation ceremony for all of the new cadets was more numbing than it was inspiring, mostly because half of her future instructors gave impassioned speeches about the amount of pride their service would bring to their families and how far their belief would keep them going in their moments of weakness. 

Allura didn’t have any family left to bring pride to — just memories of people whose expectations were in stasis and constantly floating just beyond her reach. Even worse, she never pictured a reality where she’d have to persevere without her father’s wisdom and guidance. 

But Allura didn’t come all this way to simply waste the opportunity she’d been given. Her father would be the first to tell her that the world didn’t stop spinning for the sake of a few, and that the only way to move forward was to take action. 

He wouldn’t want to see her hiding as if she had something to fear. 

Besides, she very well couldn’t avoid the rest of orientation week. 

While the hall was in a state of chaos now that hundreds of domestic students had started frantically moving into their barracks, Allura had taken refuge in her room to figure out how she was going to plan four trips around the convoluted shuttle schedule that didn’t leave much time to get any actual shopping done. 

She was contemplating splurging on a truck rental when someone had knocked on her door. Probably the residential advisor coming to collect the housing forms she’d been dutifully avoiding since she got here. She snatched them from under the bed and quickly signed a couple against the frame of the door before she opened the door to find a boy her age with sweat-slicked hair and a pair of headphones hanging around his neck blasting Dua Lipa. 

“Hey!” he greeted breathlessly. “Sorry, Lance from 314, I’m kinda just knocking on every door to see if anyone has a screwdriver. My fucking sister forgot to stick the toolbox in the truck so now I have like nothing to put my loft bed together with.” 

“O-Oh, uh. Sorry, I don’t really have much in the way of tools — wait, hold on, did you just say a loft bed?” 

Lance perked up. “Yeah, you ever see those loft beds on Pinterest that have those cool ass desk setups underneath? That’s like sort of what I’m going for. Ideally I’d ask my buddy Hunk for help — oh, he’s an engineer by the way — but he went off shopping without me. Can you believe it? Said he couldn’t wait for me because I was taking too long picking out an outfit. Anyway, so you said you didn’t have any tools?” 

Allura blinked against the onslaught of information. “I’m pretty sure loft beds aren’t on the list of permitted furniture. Don’t they inspect our barracks every other week?” 

“Wait, I thought that was just a rumor.” 

“I...don’t think it is.”

“Are you serious?” Lance groaned and collapsed against her door. She barely had a moment to take in the height, the tanned skin, and the blue eyes before she was distracted by the very much broken slabs of wood that were tucked under his arm. “Dammit. Am I going to have to return this now? Please tell me there’s a Target nearby. They’ll take it back if I show receipts, right?” 

“Well, first of all, you’re getting sweat on my door.” 

“Oh, yoinks, my bad. I’ve been unloading my truck for like the past hour.” He flexed and proudly tapped his biceps. “All by myself, might I add. Impressive, huh? Oh cool, you snagged a single! With a good view too! My window faces the sim labs so I get like literally  _ no _ sun or anything. At least the room’s big. Win some lose some you know?” 

He was opening her window and leaning his head outside to get a better look at the line of mountains resting against the horizon while Allura stood gaping by the doorway. “Do you normally just waltz into stranger’s rooms without asking them?” 

“You know, I’ve found that’s how I’ve met most of my dearest friends. Plus my family never really believes in boundaries anyway.” Lance’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, wait, I didn’t even ask you your name.” He held out his hand. “Alright, do over. I’m Lance! First year flight student, soon-to-be fighter class cadet, and your new hallmate. And you are?” 

Allura relented with a sigh and shook his hand. “Allura. Also a fight year flight student. Nice to meet you, I suppose.” 

“Allura, huh?  _ Alluring _ name for an alluring lady,” he winked. 

She rolled her eyes. “Clever. Don’t think I’ve  _ ever _ heard that one before…” 

“Really?” Lance beamed. “Awesome! Hunk says my flirting sucks but I’m like an expert at coming up with material on the fly. I’d be happy to demonstrate further.” 

“As delightful as that sounds, I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut this short. I think there’s a shuttle leaving for town in about ten minutes and I need to grab it if I’m going to get all my shopping done.” She turned him around and started to shove him out the door. 

“Wait, like to buy the rest of your dorm stuff?” Lance asked, bracing his hands against the frame to keep himself inside. “You’re gonna hop on a shuttle to do that? Why?” 

“Because I flew here from London, and they don’t let you check your cars at the airport. So I’m stuck with the shuttle.” 

“Well how much stuff do you need to get? You can borrow my truck if you want.” 

“Wait...borrow?”

Lance jutted his thumb down the hall. “I still need to pick up a few things myself. Slash probably return this stupid fucking loft bed. There goes  _ that _ idea. Eh, whatever, I’ll probably just get a bookcase or something. But yeah, I drove here from SoCal in my pickup, and there’s plenty of space for more than one person’s stuff. You’re more than welcome to hitch a ride with me. I can even help you carry everything if it’s a lot you need to get.” 

Allura blinked and dropped her hands from his shoulders. “That’s...actually really nice of you?”

“Why’re you making it sound like a question? It’s no problem. I’m always happy to help a pretty girl out, especially if it means saving her from an unairconditioned hellscape.” 

“I’m sorry, it’s just...I guess I didn’t really expect such a kind offer. As long as you don’t mind, I’d really appreciate the ride, thank you.” 

Lance waved off the comment. “Don’t you even worry, you’d be doing me a favor. It’s about a half hour drive into town and I could use the company. Besides, it’s usually best to navigate Target via the buddy system. That place is going to be crawling with Garrison students so it might be best to have someone out there having my back.” 

“You make it sound like we’re going to get into a fight.”

“You must not be familiar with Target.”

“I mean we don’t have those in London. We have Asda. Is that the same thing?” 

“I don’t know, have you ever fought a middle aged suburban mom for the last industrial sized package of Bounty paper towels in the thick of a Black Friday blowout sale at Asda before?” 

Allura made a face. “Oh my God, did that actually happen to you?” 

“Best not to go into it. Dark stuff.” Lance checked the time on his cellphone and skipped out her room. “I’m gonna take a quick shower, but we’ll hit the road in like twenty minutes, ‘kay? Wear something comfortable we’re going to be doing a  _ lot _ of walking. Oh! And if you’ve got a playlist for road trips, bring that too! We’ll need it!” 

“Wait,” Allura called out. “Are you going to come knock on my door or should I come to yours or…?” 

He couldn’t hear her — he’d already thrown his headphones back on and jogged three doors down to burst into his room. 

* * *

 

Lance’s blue Ford pickup wasn’t anything spectacular — apparently it was pre-owned by two of his older siblings before it was passed down to him — but it had air conditioning and a jack to plug in an iPod so Allura couldn’t complain. 

He popped open the glove compartment, handed her one of his spare sunglasses, and threw her a water bottle that he had stashed in the back seat. “She’s not much, but this cutie got me all the way to Coachella and back for my eighteenth birthday. Here. Plug your phone in, play whatever you want.” 

Allura rolled up the sleeves to her t-shirt and pointed the air vents towards her face. “I don’t think you’ll like my music much. It’s all Adele and Ed Sheeran.” 

“Shut up?” Lance smirked. “Stick it in, I fucking bust it out to Adele like every Tuesday. I can hit all her high notes.” 

Allura scoffed. “If you can hit all the riffs in ‘Hello’ I’ll buy you a new bookshelf.” 

“Is that a bet?” 

Allura pulled a fifty out of her wallet and slapped it on the dashboard. “If you’re going to talk a big game, then you better be serious.” 

Lance threw his head back in laughter as he pulled out of the parking garage. “You are going to be out of a lot of money by the end of this trip if you keep underestimating me.” 

Turned out Lance was actually a beautiful singer and a glee club legend in high school, which meant that Allura had to Google blue book cases on Target’s website. For some reason he felt bad taking her money and offered to buy her a hanging chair for her room before Allura had to break it to him that that  _ also _ wasn’t on the list of regulation furniture. She finally broke out her student handbook and read it aloud to him during the most of the ride so as to inform him that all of his plans to install a flat screen over his bed, smuggle a microwave into his room, and paint his ceiling a bright blue were going to get him expelled during his first week. 

“I’m editing your shopping list,” Allura said when she’d swiped his phone. “You can’t expect to bring a ping pong table into your room. Get a dart board or something.” 

“Darts? What does this look like, a dive bar? I need something to keep me physically and mentally fit or else I’ll waste away in my room studying for the next six years of my life.” 

“If you really want to stay fit, you should just get a pull up bar. It’s cheaper than a ping pong table anyway.”

Lance scoffed. “Got something to say about my slim yet muscular frame?”

“I’m just saying, we have physical exams coming up. Wouldn’t hurt to tone up more.” 

“I’ll have you know girls drool over my biceps on a semi-consistent basis.” 

“Please, I can probably bench press more than you.”

“Are you seriously trying to step to me in my  _ own car!? _ Because we can take it to the gym later on and settle this like men.” 

Allura turned his chin. “Keep your eyes on the road before we crash.” 

Lance grumbled. “Whatever. Bet I look sexier when I’m all sweaty anyway.” 

True to Lance’s warnings, Target was a bonafide battlefield when they arrived, and Allura wasn’t sure whether it was the atrociously long lines or the ruined stock shelves that were scaring her more. Lance seemed to be perfectly accustomed to the madness because he grabbed a cart near the doors, emptied it of all the abandoned school supplies left inside, and whisked her off to the bedding section. 

She supposed she was rather lucky to have him. Lance was brilliant at reaching the undisturbed stock on the top shelves and he even managed to — rather stupidly but still very heroically — slide down the lamp aisle on his knees and grab the very last pink desk lamp before another first year student had snatched it up first. It was sort of like shopping with a child the way he was racing the cart across the store and even relaxing inside while Allura pushed him around the carpeting section, but she had to admit he helped her catch up on all the laughing and smiling she’d deprived herself of after hiding away in her room the entire weekend. If not mature or subtle, he was at least charmingly entertaining. 

They managed to get all their shopping done in just under two hours, and Lance had expertly packed the truck with all of their purchases before securing it all with bungee cords clipped to the edges of the cargo bed. Allura insisted on helping but he promised that it was payback for talking him out of that altercation where he’d almost run over an employee with his shopping cart. 

As a reward, they pulled into the parking lot of Allura’s favorite Cuban restaurant while Lance ran inside and ordered the first five things off the menu for them to share. 

They both had their seats reclined and their feet propped up on the dashboard while they dug into their food and kept Ed Sheeran playing gently in the background. Somehow, the conversation had drifted towards their families and Allura had found out that Lance was the youngest sibling, had grown up in LA, and had posters of the Galaxy Garrison hanging in his room since he was eight years old.

“I made my parents print out the applications to all the aviation and aeronautics high schools in the city,” Lance told her. “I was gonna get good grades, pass all my piloting pre reqs, and get into the Garrison if it killed me. I’m pretty sure my entire house was crying when I finally got the acceptance letter. Full ride too, can you believe it?” 

“That’s impressive! I heard they don’t give those out very often.”

“Yeah, well, Mami said that if I was going to go kill myself fighting aliens in space, I better find a way to pay for it myself. So she had to shut up about it and let me go.”

“Fighting aliens?” 

“Look, she heard the words ‘fighter pilot’ and started sobbing thinking I had signed up for the marines or something. I told her it was more like the air force but she didn’t want to hear it. Something about seeing her baby boy in the military didn’t sit right with her. Still doesn’t I guess.” 

Allura stirred her ropa vieja. “I guess I understand that. You get so caught up in the academics you sort of forget about the real danger of doing what we do.” 

“I never really forget about the danger,” Lance clarified. “I mean, I have a big family, I always have to think about myself in relation to how it’s going to affect other people. But I guess the danger just dwarfs in comparison to everything else.” 

“What’s everything else?”

Lance’s gaze was stuck on the horizon. “I guess...wanting to be a part of something important.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, we’re the ones that take mankind out into space so that we can touch what hasn’t been touched and see what hasn’t been seen. Whatever’s out there is bigger than anything we’ve ever known, and now we get to throw ourselves right into it. We’re like a new generation of pioneers and changemakers. Definitely beats working in an office for the rest of your life.” 

“Does it ever scare you?” Allura asked. “Risking everything you’ve worked for and trying to snatch up an opportunity that might not come? I mean, so few flight students make it into fighter class. Some don’t even have the grit to last the full six years.” 

“A little,” Lance admitted. “Although you’d be surprised what you can accomplish if you believe in yourself hard enough and just go for it with everything you’ve got. If at that point you still don’t make it, then maybe it wasn’t meant to be.” 

“But if you fail, how do you know whether it was lack of skill or lack of belief in yourself?” 

Lance hummed. “I guess it’s hard to tell…” 

Allura sighed. “That’s not very comforting.” 

“Don’t let that upset you. Listen, you’re here because you deserve to be here. They don’t just accept anyone. And if you need help believing in yourself then I’ll pick up half the slack.” 

Allura raised a brow. “Oh, come on, you don’t really mean that. We just met.”

“So? We’re going to be classmates if we’re shooting for the same piloting class. We’re already hallmates. We’ve broken bread in my car which means we’re already friends. Don’t give me that look! We are! Anyway my point is that I’d be a horrible classmate, hallmate, and friend if I didn’t have faith that you’d succeed.” 

It was such a stupidly naive thing to say yet the sincerity warmed her down to her toes. “For all I know, I could be a disaster of a pilot.” 

“Nah. You’re a rockstar. I can tell.”

“How?”

Lance pointed to his chest and lifted his chin proudly. “The heart always knows the truth,” he quoted. “And the truth is that you’re gonna kill it. Don’t you worry that gorgeous head of yours.” 

Allura hid her smile behind her hair while Lance loaded her plate up with more food. “Thank you.”

“Of course! Let me know if you want more.” 

“No, I mean thank you for...I don’t know. Being so sweet and friendly. You didn’t have to drive me all the way out here.” 

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Besides, you kept me company all afternoon. I should be thanking you. Also you did buy me a bookshelf so I’d look like an asshole if I didn’t do at least this much.” 

He made her laugh with her whole body again. “You know, I flew in two days ago and I’ve been completely out of sorts ever since. I think this is the most I’ve laughed in days.” 

“Rough transition?” 

“Just homesickness, I think,” she lied. “Long way from home, long way from family, being here all by myself. I guess I feel a bit lost. And scared I might fail.” 

Lance rubbed the back of her hand that was clenched in her lap. “I’m sorry. I mean, I miss my folks but I can’t imagine being so far away from them and being alone in another country on top of that. I don’t know if this helps, but you don’t have to be  _ totally _ alone. I mean, I know we just met and everything but, I was serious about the friend thing. If you ever need anything I’m literally three doors down.” 

Allura felt her apprehension uncoil underneath his touch. “I really appreciate that.” 

“Anytime,” Lance grinned. “Plus now I can come bug you whenever I want to order from this place again. Their menu is  _ fire _ . Almost like being right back at home.” 

“How long until those military beds feel like home?” 

“Who knows. If you ask me, shitty beds don’t make for very good homes. Now if you can find good people and make good memories, then you’re getting somewhere. Lucky for us, we’re already off to a pretty good start!”

An R&B song came up on Lance’s playlist  without warning, and he quickly fiddled with his phone to turn the volume all the way up. Meanwhile Allura looked at him — bathed in scorching sunlight and belting out the words to a song he only half knew — and wondered if he even partially comprehended the weight of the kindness that so effortlessly spilled out of him. 

* * *

 

“We didn’t have any homework due on the first day of class, did we?”

Allura pursed her lips to hold in her laughter as Lance quietly slid into the seat next to hers. “You’re asking that now while we’re already in our seats?” 

Lance adjusted the cap to his cadet uniform. “Well, if I need to come up with an excuse, I still have a good seven minutes to get ready. Plus if I have to produce tears, it’s good that I get some warning.” 

“The semester’s just started and you’re already talking about crying your way out of missed assignments?” 

“Shit, so we  _ did _ have homework!?”

Allura calmly pushed Lance’s face away from her own. “So long as you brought proof of your flight hours, you’ll be fine.” 

“Says you,” Lance grumbled. “Did you hear what those junior officers were telling us about Iverson during that piloting program mixer we were at last night? He’s a total hardass.”

“It’s the military. Isn’t everyone supposed to be a hardass?” 

“No, no, listen, you totally missed the conversation I was having with this cargo pilot dude. Iverson’s like... _ crazy! _ He once got someone expelled because she walked into the flight simulator without proper footwear and scuffed up the bridge.” 

“Okay  _ that’s _ not true.” 

“How do you know? I was networking with some of his past victims. I was making the connects. I’ve got insider info. We’re not going to survive this freak.” 

“You’re worrying about whether or not our instructor is a psychopath meanwhile  _ I’m _ worried about what the requirements are for qualifying for fighter class. Do you realize seventy five percent of the people in this room are either going to switch into a different program or become cargo pilots? Cargo pilots, Lance! Statistically speaking, we’re already doomed to cart around fuel tanks for the rest of our lives.” 

Lance nearly dropped his tablet on the ground. “ _ Seventy-five!? _ Are you sure? Where did you hear that?”

“You obviously missed the conversation  _ I _ was having with the other cargo pilot.” 

Lance blinked at the front of the classroom. “What did we get ourselves into?” 

After surviving the orientation week for the flight program, Allura and Lance were left reeling. The fighter pilot program was so obviously constructed to weed out most of the candidates, and it was starting to become clear why most Galaxy Garrison applicants simply opted for cargo pilot class right from the start. 

Flying a standard, single-ride spacecraft was a lot different from flying a fighter spacecraft. It wasn’t as if coding languages or physics theorems changed now that the comms and engineering students were at the Garrison. But all of the piloting students interested in making it to fighter class were set to get a very violent crash course on what it meant to handle a highly sensitive and fully armed military grade space vehicle that they’d never even seen before. 

To add insult to injury, Lance turned out to be right about Iverson. Everyone jumped to their feet and saluted him when he walked into the room, but he proceeded to walk up and down the aisles and bark corrections about their posture before beginning the lesson. Lance looked like he got a little bit of spit on his face when Iverson yelled at him for using the wrong hand, and Allura got a lengthy lecture about needing to keep her hair pulled up from now on since long, loose hair was apparently a dress code infraction.

Iverson wasn’t a man that wasted time or minced words. He reiterated the rigor of the program with an added guilt trip thrown in — their parents didn’t pay thousands of dollars for them to come in second place and pilot the NASA equivalent of a FedEx truck for the rest of their lives. They were sitting in this classroom to make a difference, so if they didn’t want to humiliate themselves on his watch, they needed to work their asses off. 

He wrote all of the fighter class qualifications on the board. At least a 3.8 overall GPA and a pass on all of their gen ed exams. No behavioral infractions or suspensions. No less than fifty simulation hours. A pass on all fitness, combat, and survival first aid courses. And, of course, an exceeds expectations on the infamous Flight Simulator Course being held at the end of the semester.  

“Don’t think that getting in your personal simulation hours is going to be enough to pass the final course,” Iverson warned. “It’s not enough to know how to handle the vehicle. If you suddenly lose a wing, you need to know what to do in a split second in order to save the rest of your crew. If you’re stuck in the middle of an asteroid belt with your co-pilot out of commission, you need to be able to know how to navigate your way to safety. If you’re suddenly under fire by a non-friendly fighter spacecraft, you need to be able to pull up your weapons systems and eradicate the threat without having a moment to prepare. These are the types of pilots we allow into the program. Whether you’re able to hack it is entirely up to you.” 

A student towards the back of the classroom raised their hand. “Sir, how are students expected to satisfy all these requirements and attend classes and make curfew by the end of the night? This doesn’t sound possible.” 

Iverson didn’t even turn away from the board. “If it doesn’t sound possible to you, then there’s the door. I’m sure Montgomery would be more than happy to let another cargo pilot into her classroom.” 

That student promptly slumped down in their seat while Iverson started setting up the projector. “I don’t think you all understand why you’re here. I don’t care if you don’t have time to eat or socialize. If you want this hard enough, you’ll sacrifice all luxuries into order to make sure you make it to the end of the semester with your fighter class uniforms in hand. If you don’t have the grit to do so, then I’ll save you the time and give you your transfer forms right now. You all have sixty seconds to decide.” 

To the class’s credit, only three students stood up, took the cargo pilot program transfer forms from Iverson, and left the classroom without even a second look back. Not one person left in the classroom looked or felt confident after a speech like that, but they all sat straight in their chairs, tablets and notebooks ready for the lecture, and prepared to spit blood if it meant having a chance. Lance reached under the desk and grabbed Allura’s hand, and she felt herself sit up straighter as she squeezed it back. 

Iversoon scanned the remaining students and gave the slightest nod. “Very well. Leave all questions to the end of the lecture and pull up the third chapter of your textbooks. And before you ask, no I will not slow down.” 

When they were all dismissed, the morale had been fully sapped out of everyone. Students that were gossiping excitedly about their classes had left the classroom walking in opposite directions and clutching their books to their chests. Allura certainly hadn’t been expecting a competitive program like this to be brimming with supportive colleagues, but she hadn’t expected the enemy lines to be drawn so quickly.

Lance pulled Allura to the side of the hallway and asked her to take out her schedule. 

“If you don’t want to that’s okay, but I thought we could maybe do all of our physical training and sim hours together?” Lance swiped around on his calendar and frowned. “Hm. How busy are you on Saturday mornings?” 

Allura was barely glancing at her tablet. “Did you notice how the energy changed after the class?”

“Hm?” 

“I dunno, everyone sort of branched off and didn’t say a word to each other. Was it just me?” 

Lance stared at the backs of the last few retreating students. “Yeah. Someone I spoke to last night warned me that this would happen. Iverson kind of encourages this really cut throat, non-collaborative vibe apparently. Every man out for himself. He claims it improves the yield rate but I think he just enjoys seeing the competition play out because he’s a sick bastard.” 

“That’s horrid…” 

“I always got the sense that this program gave of Ivy League vibes. You know, everyone’s so into their own thing and so obsessed with succeeding they forget to look out for everyone else? It’s kind of sad it’s already started this soon.” 

“Maddening is more like it. All of our requirements took an entire whiteboard to list out and to top it all off I feel like we’re going to have to start competing with each other to even get time in the gym or enough sim hours.” 

“Is that even allowed?” 

Allura leaned against the wall and rubbed at her eyes. “I have to get a study schedule sorted soon. And figure out when to work out. And reserve the courses to practice for the exams. And start learning all the sim controls and then get my hours done and somehow fit in the rest of my gen classes and find time to sleep and oh God, when am I going to have time to sleep? We’re going to have hours of homework and Iverson already told us we’re having an exam in two weeks and we haven’t even  _ learned _ anything — ”

Lance grabbed her shoulder and pushed her hair away from her face. “Woah, woah, hey! Slow down. It’s only the first class of the semester, where is all of this coming from? You’re not really going to let this asswipe intimidate you, are you?” 

“I’m not  _ intimidated _ by him,” Allura rolled her eyes. “I just have to do well, and I don’t appreciate the fact that we’re being pitted against each other for the amusement of a few senior officers.” 

“You don’t have to stress yourself out to do perfectly. All you can do is your best.”

“I can’t just do my best. I have to succeed, I have to get into this program, and I can’t slack off for even a moment. I can’t.” 

She was still rubbing at her eyes, so Lance pulled her hands away from her face and tipped her chin up. “Hey. Is everything okay? You sound really overwhelmed. Do you need to talk?” 

His thumb was rubbing soft circles into her arm, and Allura could feel the compulsion to vent pressing against the base of her throat. But she swallowed everything back and fell back on her usual half-lie. “No, I’m fine. Just didn’t get much sleep last night. Too...nervous about our first day of classes. I guess I’m letting myself get stressed out.” 

There was a hardness in Lance’s eyes that made Allura think he recognized the response for the brush off that it was, but he gracefully let it pass. “I get that. It’s scaring me a little bit too. It’s a lot of work.” 

Allura rolled the words against the inside of her cheek and hoped she wasn’t giving away too much. “I just...don’t want to feel like I’m here doing this alone. My parents are too far away to really help as much as I’d like them to so it’s really only me here trying to accomplish all of this. It’s just a bit much.” 

“You’re not going to be doing this alone,” Lance said. “I wasn’t kidding about what I said before. We’re in this together. I’m not going anywhere.” 

“I don’t want you to burn yourself out trying to help me,” Allura explained. “Not that I don’t appreciate you being so nice and welcoming, but I wouldn’t blame you for just trying to make sure you’re getting your own stuff done so that you pass.” 

Lance frowned. “I don’t believe in that. I didn’t just come here to beat out the rest of my classmates. I also came here to make friends. And it would literally kill me to see you struggling if I knew that I could easily carve out the space to help you out. Not that I expect you to struggle because, honestly, I think you’ve got this in the bag. And you’re gonna have ol’ Lancey Lance cheering you on. You can’t possibly fail.” 

Allura snorted. “And what makes me so special? I don’t see you making study groups with our other classmates.” 

Lance shrugged. “They don’t seem like they want it. But, if it’s okay for me to say, you look like you’ve been having a rough transition. And I thought maybe you’d appreciate havings someone in your corner backing you up when things get tough. You’re such a smart and amazing person, I don’t want to see you screw up just because you were going through a hard time. Homesickness isn’t fun.”

Allura gnawed on her lip and stared at her feet. “No it isn’t…” 

“Besides,” Lance continued, clearing his throat. “I-I like you. Not like that! I mean, I’m not saying you’re not super pretty because you totally are. And I’m not focusing on that I just mean it as like a general observation you’re just like objectively pretty and awesome. But that’s not what I mean by me liking you. I mean it  _ is _ but I also mean I just like  _ you _ . Like your whole vibe and personality and I just wanna help out. Because you’re cool. And I like spending time with you.” His hands fell away from her. “You know what? Never mind. Scratch that whole thing, it came out wrong.” 

He pulled a laugh from her. “No, no, it’s fine, I know what you mean. And I appreciate it, really, I don’t mean to be suspicious about your intentions. I just...I don’t know. Do you ever get tired of people who say they want to help but don’t really want to put in the work? They just say it to be nice or fill up the space?” 

Lance chuckled. “Yeah, I getcha, and I hate it like crazy. Listen, if you ever feel like you don’t want my help or you don’t want me around, just say the word. I’m extra because I care, I swear! But I don’t say things just to say them. Well, I do, but not for important stuff. When I said we were friends in my car, I meant that.” 

She marvelled at the handsomely crooked smile that lit up the fondness in his eyes. “I was hoping you did.” 

He took her hand and linked their pinkies together. “I’m gonna make a promise to you. I’m gonna bust my ass to help you become a fighter pilot. Whatever you need, I’m there for you. Deal?”

Allura squeezed his pinky back. “And I’ll try and be the same for you.” 

“Aw, you don’t have to — ”

“That’s what friends do, right?” Allura prompted. “They support each other. If you’re going to help me become a fighter pilot, then I’m going to help you become one. That’s the deal.” 

“We walk into our first fighter pilot class together?” 

“Absolutely.”

Lance giggled sweetly and shook their linked hands. “Alright, then it’s a deal!”

Allura’s gaze softened. “Thanks again. I know I’ve already thanked you for this but really just...thank you.” 

“Anytime, ‘Lura,” he beamed, and Allura had to pretend the simple little nickname didn’t make her chest flush with warmth. 

Lance turned Allura’s tablet around and held their calendars side by side. “Let’s do this. Tuesday and Thursday nights we can work out before dinner and focus on our physical exams. If I run over right now, I can reserve one of the sim labs for a few hours every Saturday morning so that the two of us can coach each other while we’re practicing. And we’re taking a lot of the same classes, so we can even study together. I’m sure Hunk wouldn’t mind you coming over to my room to do some work. It’ll be great!” 

Allura smiled. “That sounds like a plan.”

“See?” Lance beamed. “We’re going to rock this. A power couple like us? They can’t possibly not pass us.” 

“Power couple, huh?” Allura teased. “Getting a bit carried away, aren’t we?” 

Lance leaned in and waggled his brows. “Nothing wrong with being hopeful, right?” 

Allura rolled her eyes gently pushed his face away. “Down boy. I plan to focus on my studies while I’m here. Your charm isn’t going to distract me.” 

Lance pounded a fist to his chest and collapsed on the ground. “Ouch, Allura! Man down!”

“Get up before an officer sees you! You’re so silly. How are you this hyper before breakfast?” 

“It’s one of my many talents. I’d be happy to give you an exhaustive list on our way to the mess hall.” 

“I guess I could use a spot of breakfast too. But I draw the line at three list items. It isn’t good to reveal all of your secrets right away. You have to keep girls guessing, you know.”

“Is that so?”  

Allura pulled Lance up from the floor and linked her arm with his. “Of course. Why ruin the surprise? If you want to really enchant someone, you have to keep the pleasant surprises coming. That way it’ll feel like they’re slowly getting to learn you as opposed to feeling like you’re showing off for the sake of impressing them.” 

Lance smirked. “Are you teaching me how to flirt with you, Allura?” 

“I’m teaching you how to flirt effectively. Whether you have the courage to try it on me is entirely up to you. I’d recommend treading carefully though, I’m very hard to impress.” 

“I’ll gladly accept that challenge.” 

“And I look forward to the results,” she winked. “By the way, do you have a double block of physics on Wednesdays too? It’s right in the middle of our lunch hour and I have no idea where I’m going to find the time to eat. Do you think I’ll get in trouble if I sneak sandwiches into lab sessions?” 

* * *

 

Once their classes were in full swing, Lance officially declared a “ride or die” policy. 

It took about two days of wheedling for Lance to get Allura to take it seriously, but it quickly turned into a near flawless strategy. Allura’s room became their impromptu study spot. Lance would cart all of his books over every evening and plant himself at her desk while Allura laid on her bed so they could blast through all of their assignments together. 

The rule was no man left behind. If one of them stayed up to cram for an exam, so did the other. If one or both of them didn’t understand an assignment, they’d stay up together until everything made sense and all their work was completed. Allura always helped Lance with his physics problem sets, Lance always helped Allura with her Calculus ones, they both suffered through memorizing all of their beginner fighter pilot manuals, and scoffed at how deceptively simple all of their survival first aid coursework was. 

Allura reminded Lance to stretch, Lance reminded Allura to eat, and they both set alarms for themselves to remember to drink water and take naps. Even when they were at the gym, Allura hyped Lance up during his weight training, and Lance was always jogging alongside Allura and singing through his motivational playlist while she pushed through her endurance training. 

They were a very well balanced team, and Lance quickly became a permanent presence in her routine. He was always in her room waiting for her on Wednesday evenings when her classes ran late. She was always waiting for him at the gym on Tuesdays when he came back from his lab periods. And sometimes, when their study nights were particularly brutal, it wasn’t uncommon for Lance to curl up at the foot of Allura’s bed and nap there until morning because he was just too lazy to walk the ten yards back to his room. 

She really loved it. It felt so effortless to lean on him when she needed him **.** All of Allura’s earlier anxiety seemed so silly when she knew that Lance was always going to be just around the corner to hear what was bothering her and work to figure out how he could help. 

There was really only one thing that was proving  to be a foil for them both.

Lance winced and stared at his chest in the mirror. “Jesus H. Christ, those simulator seatbelts fucking  _ hurt _ when they dig into you.” 

Allura stepped out of her flight suit and stared at bruises cross-crossing over his pectorals. “Oh my. Who knew you were such a frail little thing.” 

He flung his towel at her and pouted at the way she collapsed against the lockers and cackled. “Shut up! This is serious, my mom is gonna think I got beat up or something. Ugh geez, this is  _ so _ not sexy, how am I supposed to find the love of my life looking like this?”

“I’m sure the love of your life will live. Besides, with the way you go down in the simulator, it’s a surprise those bruises don’t look worse.” 

Lance rolled his eyes and started pulling on his tank top. “Don’t start with me, ‘Lura, I’ve still got Iverson’s spittle on my face from the way he screamed at me today.” He cleared his throat and pulled an ugly grimace. “‘ _ You’re here to pilot, not treat this like a joyride! You ought to start taking this seriously otherwise the cargo pilot cohort will be more than happy to open up a seat for you!’ _ ” 

“That’s becoming his favorite threat,” Allura mused. 

“Yeah, and I’m super over it. So I crashed the thing a couple of times….” 

Allura snorted. “ _ A couple _ .”

“ _ Okay!  _ Fine. A fair few. At least I’m not losing protocol points. That’s gotta count for something.” 

Allura spun her finger and Lance immediately turned his back so that Allura could change into her clothes. “Very true. But I’m sure you’ll score more points if you stop pulling moves that aren’t part of our flight manual. Corkscrews are the sort of thing senior fighter pilots are learning.” 

“Kogane pulled a corkscrew today and totally nailed it!”

“Don’t remind me,” she grumbled. “He finished it in half the time he was expected to, meanwhile I can’t get past the first objective point without crashing first. I don’t know how he does it. It isn’t fair. I expected us to be failing our theoretical classes, not botching the simulator.”  

“That kid is a freak of nature, don’t pay attention to him. What we need is to get in more practice,” Lance decided. “Our exam is in like, what, three weeks? Neither of us has successfully passed our final course. I mean, granted three quarters of the class hasn’t either but that is not comforting.”

“Tell me about it. A lot of them are already talking about building their cargo pilot schedules for next semester. Morale is at an all time low.” 

“Nah, I’m not about that. We are not becoming cargo pilots Allura, we don’t pull off the uniforms.” 

Allura buttoned up her shirt. “You can turn around now. Look, I agree with you, but the simulators are booked up until the exam. We really can’t get much more practice than we’ve already scheduled.” 

Lance waggled his eyebrows as he flung his backpack over his shoulder. “Or can we?” 

“Oh no.”

“What do you mean ‘oh no’?”

“What grand plan have you concocted to get us expelled now?” 

Lance pressed a hand to his chest. “ _ ‘Lura! _ How dare you! As if I would dare risk your future at this fine institution by doing something that would get you expelled.” 

“I don’t like the look on your face, what are you thinking?” 

“It’s nothing bad,” Lance promised. “My friend Katie’s practicing for her comm spec simulator and she told me that the lock on Simulator Twelve is busted. The maintenance order hasn’t cleared yet so if you jiggle it a little you can totally sneak inside without tripping the alarms.” 

Allura’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean — ”

“We can totally go in there tonight and practice for a few hours after curfew gets called!” 

“Are you crazy? If we get caught, we’re going to get infractions put on our record and then we  _ definitely _ won’t be able to get into the program.”

Lance led them out of the locker rooms. “Look, I promise it’ll be fine. I’ve snuck into the mess hall to steal food late at night so many times I’ve got their rounds memorized. If we slip out at half past ten, we shouldn’t run into anyone. And we’ll come back with plenty of time to sleep before our combat classes first thing.” He held up his pinky. “Promise we won’t get caught.” 

Allura crossed her arms. “You realize it’s very hard to say no to you when you’re this enthusiastic about things, right?” 

Lance shrugged. “It’s a gift and a curse.” He wiggled his finger pleadingly. “Come ooooon. It’ll be so much fun. Just the two of us practicing together, no Iverson and no classmates to breathe down our necks and nitpick our every move. We’ll get so much accomplished.” 

Stupid as the plan was, a bit of peace and quiet did sound nice. They could run through the course as many times as they wanted without being interrupted by the next student on the practice schedule, and their own critiques were sure to be much more useful than anything Iverson had screamed at them during the entire semester. 

Allura sighed and linked her pinky with Lance’s. “If an officer catches us, I’m saying that you kidnapped me.” 

“It would be my honor to take the blame for both of us,” he winked. 

“Oh, be still my heart.” 

“Are you enchanted?” 

“Thirty percent there.” 

“ _ Just _ thirty?” 

“I was almost tickled. But not quite. Better luck next time, though! I’m rooting for you.” 

“That’s a promise.” 

“You’re so easily distracted. We’re supposed to be heading to the track. Jogging. Remember?”

“You are far preferable to jogging a 5k.” 

Allura shoved him through the crowd of students. “I give you full permission to flirt with me later, but right now you need to get your time down by fifteen seconds so there’s no getting out of this. Go on, march!”

“ _ Alluraaaaaaa.”  _

After spending the rest of the day trying to get their jogging times down, they were left sufficiently sore and leaned on each other all the way back to Allura’s room to cram for their physics exam on Thursday. Lance curled up with one of her pillows and napped for a few hours while Allura dozed off on the floor surrounded by textbooks, photocopies of Lance’s notes, and study guides she’d bought online in a moment of weakness. 

Once their ten thirty alarm went off, Allura plucked up their flight suits while Lance led the way through the halls, circumventing all the senior officers who were making sure all the cadets were secure in their dorms. 

Lance popped the lock open to Simulator Twelve with no trouble. Once they were inside he moved to the main console and started to load up the specifications for the course they were meant to be running. 

“You wanna go first?” Lance asked. “I can set it for Level 10 since that’s what the exam’s going to be set for, but we can start on 7 for now and work our way up.” 

“10’s fine,” Allura promised, slipping into her flight suit. “Just don’t be afraid of hurting my feelings. Tell me everything I’m doing wrong, alright?” 

“Don’t worry. You’ll do great. Just focus on the course and worry about critiques later.” 

Allura nodded, shut the simulator door behind her, and strapped herself into the pilot’s seat while she watched her screen spit out all of the preferences Lance was typing in from outside — Level 10 difficulty, ten minute time limit, adjusted for the lack of a co-pilot, engineer, and comm spec, simple search and rescue. 

She leaned back into her chair, gripping the controls with her arms locked straight in front of her. “Alright,” Allura muttered to herself. “Patience. Relax.” 

Her take off was smooth and easy, and it took no time at all to lock onto her course and start coasting through the expanse of space that was stretched out in front of her. Allura’s cohort had done this course about five times, so she was already anticipating the distress beacon that would pop up on her screen just seconds before she had to navigate through a congested asteroid belt in order to reach her first objective.

Only two students in the entire cohort had passed this level successfully, and unfortunately she wasn’t one of them. Yet. She wasn’t sure she could face another one of Iverson’s lectures if she didn’t get this down.

Allura locked onto the distress beacon and clenched her jaw.

The first three minute were always a breeze. But once she hit the four minute mark, the density of the obstacles started to increase and near perfect maneuverability became a necessity in order to avoid a breach or a collision. And that was always where Allura struggled. 

There was never enough time to check her entire field of vision, keep an eye on her navigation screen, readjust her grip on the foreign controls, and keep the posture they were instructed to keep before she made the turns. There were times she was tempted to just screw protocol, veer off the suggested course, and go for the turns without doing all of her necessary checks, but the last thing she wanted was to lose points for mishandling the spacecraft. 

It was obvious that there was a science to knowing what to prioritize and when, but it continued to elude her no matter how many times she sat in the pilot’s seat. As much as she kept repeating sections of their flight manuals over and over in her head, it didn’t make up for the fact that there was something inherent and incapable of being taught that she simply wasn’t getting. And the longer she failed to clue onto it, the more she kept scraping the edges of asteroids and watching the counter above her head dock points for the collisions. 

Every time her points dropped, her arms would keep tensing until they were so locked up tight she couldn’t even move a muscle before she barrelled straight into an asteroid and jolted backwards upon impact. 

The simulator’s distress alarms started blaring and Allura cursed as she got locked out of her controls and was informed that she’d failed the course. Again. 

“ _ Hey, not bad! _ ” Lance cheered over the comms. “ _ You lasted two minutes longer than you usually do. That was really good. _ ” 

“I crashed. I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of good.” 

“ _ Yeah, but your take off was great and you were doing all of your navigation, comms, and oxygen checks. It’s just the tricky piloting left to master, but you’ll get there. If you want I can knock it down a couple of levels so we can work up to 10  — ” _

“Leave it at 10,” she called back. 

“... _ you sure? We have like three hours here we can take our time — ” _

“I’m finishing this course on Level 10 tonight. Just set it back 10.” 

Lance didn’t say anything, but did as she asked. He kept the difficulty the same as he reset her settings and started the sequence over again. 

Allura’s father used to tell her that fighter crafts were exactly the same as standard crafts — just sleeker with touchier controls and a lot more torque. She graduated flight school with one of the highest transcripts, the most flight hours, and the highest praise from her instructors and she always assumed that, with her father by her side, excelling at the Garrison would be a breeze. Struggling and failing was never something she really planned for. Any roadblocks always seemed manageable with the thought of her father leading her through it. She didn’t realize until now how silly it had been to assume he’d always be there, an enduring force in her life always pushing her to be greater and do better. 

As lovely as Lance’s company was and as much as having him around helped, everything was still harder without her father. Going to the classes they had mapped out together was hard. Not being able to share her simulator critiques with him was hard. Not being able to call him. Not being able to see him. Not being able to ask him what to do when she felt her faith in herself dipping. Coran, bless his heart, tried to fill the void but it just wasn’t the same. Her father was supposed to be here telling her what to do and helping her survive this, and without him here everything still felt pushed off kilter in a way that Allura couldn’t fix. 

She was in the middle of her fourth attempt when the frustration started to eat at her concentration. Everytime the simulator alarms blared letting her know that she failed the course  _ again _ , his absence felt stronger. It was just too hard. She couldn’t get past the course. Her exam was in three weeks. She wasn’t sure she could turn this around in time. She wouldn’t get to be a fighter pilot, wouldn’t get to wear his uniform, wouldn’t get to make him proud. 

And maybe it was all the mounting stress that had made her start blinking back tears as she struggled through her fifth try, but the minute the alarms blared another failure she slammed her feet into the console, pushed her chair around, and buried her face in her knees, trying to breathe deeply and stop the tears before Lance noticed. 

It was stupid of her to cry. So stupid. But it was all so unfair, and she wished it could be easier. 

Allura heard when Lance entered the simulator and pulled up the co-pilot’s chair next to her. He knew not to bother trying to fix anything with words and just let her get all of her tears out while he rubbed her back and tried to hush her crying. Allura thoroughly hated crying in front of people — she hated how embarrassing it felt and she hated having to explain herself more. But Lance’s hands were warm on her back and his humming calmed her enough to let everything go in a cathartic release that she’d been holding back for months. 

It took a few minutes, but Allura’s breathing eventually calmed down and she lifted her head to wipe away all the tears that had dried up on her face. Lance saved her the trouble and rubbed at her cheeks with the end of his sleeve. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked 

“Not really,” Allura mumbled, leaning into his hand that was cupping her face. “But I feel like I should.”

“Well I don’t want to force you to tell me anything, but I’m a really good listener. Is it the stress from the exam? I totally get that. It’s a lot of pressure to put on us.” 

He took her hands in his own and rubbed his thumbs across her knuckles. Allura squeezed them back and tried to figure out how she was meant explain. “It’s not just the exam. I mean, it is. But it’s more than that.” 

“Anything I can help with?” 

“I wish you could, but I don’t think so. The only one who I think could help right now is my father and reaching him isn’t possible anymore.” 

“I mean...I have long distance on my cell phone plan if you need to call him?” 

A laugh burst out her without warning. “Thanks, but I don’t think calling via cell phone is going to work. He’s been dead for a couple of years now, so — ”

Lance leaned forward as his smile fell. “Wait, what?” 

Allura stared down in her lap. “Yeah,” she sighed. “Surprise, I guess.” 

Lance blinked and looked off to the side as if he were trying to remember if she’d alluded to this at all. “You said,” he began. “You said that your parents were just far away. I always thought that meant they were back in London.” 

“Well, it was easier to say they were just in London as opposed to having the dead parent conversation. It always ends up awkward. Sort of like how it’s ending up right now.” 

Lance covered his mouth in horror. “Oh God! I’m sorry! I don’t...fuck, I’m really bad at reacting to this kind of stuff, I’m seriously sorry. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” 

“No no, it’s fine,” Allura assured. “Honestly. I get it. No one really knows the right thing to say. Even I don’t know.” 

Lance tugged her closer to the edge of her chair so that he could lean his forehead against hers. “What happened?” 

“Do you remember the pilot on the Garrison Expedition 10 flight?” 

Lance swallowed. “You mean the one that died in a plane crash a couple years back? The one that was all over the news?” 

Allura took a deep breath and nodded. “That was my father.” 

His eyes widened. “Alfor was your father? I grew up watching him on TV. He was part of the reason I even wanted to become a pilot. He was such an incredible man, my heart broke when it came up on the news that he’d passed.” 

Allura sniffled. “Yeah….no kidding….” 

The tears were coming back again, and Lance pulled her into a hug so quick that all Allura could do was wrap her arms around him and tuck her head into the crook of his neck while he rubbed her back and rocked her back and forth. 

“We planned all this,” Allura started to ramble. “Me coming here like he did, me becoming a fighter pilot just like him. It was  _ our _ plan, Lance. We were supposed to do it together. And now he’s not here and it’s just so much  _ harder _ and  _ lonelier _ than I thought it would be and I’m just so fed up with this. I want to do well, but this is the one thing I can’t get right. And it’s stupid to cry over it but this is the only thing keeping me from being a pilot and I don’t want to let him down. Not after all he did for me.” 

“Don’t even say something like that ‘Lura. I may not have ever met the man, but I know for a fact that he’s going to be proud of you no matter what happens. Please don’t ever think that.” Lance turned his face into Allura’s hair and muttered against her temple. “It was so much more than homesickness this entire time, wasn’t it?” 

Allura shook her head. “I wish it was just homesickness. I really do. And I’m  _ fine _ , I am. I spent so many years working to be fine with them passing so suddenly. I’m…at peace with that. It’s just finally being here is bringing so many things back and I’m more frustrated with myself than anything else. I feel like I’m hitting a wall.” 

Lance’s hand was brushing through her hair and she tried to match her breathing to his strokes.  “Let’s take a break,” he decided. 

“Already?” 

“We’ve been at this for over an hour. We can always try again tomorrow. I doubt the lock will be fixed by then.” 

“I’m not tired,” she replied lamely. 

“So then let’s not sleep.” He stood up and pulled her out of her chair while he shut off the overhead lights in the simulator. “It’s not  _ too _ late, and the parking lot is just outside the building. We won’t get caught if we pull out the back road. Let’s go for a drive.” 

Allura frowned. “A drive where?” 

“Nowhere. Just a drive. Get away from this place for a bit and get some fresh air. And maybe talk more if you’re up for it. I just don’t think staying in here is going to be doing much for you tonight. We ought to just relax and come back to it later. What do you say?” 

Allura rubbed at her eyes and pulled her loose hair away from her face. “I guess a drive sounds nice…” 

Lance grinned and helped her tuck her hair behind her ear. “You get changed, I’ll bring the truck around.” 

“Where are we going though?” 

“It’s a surprise,” he said. “But I promise it’ll help.”

* * *

 

Lance kept his headlights off until they backed out of the Garrison garage and were far away enough from campus for him to pull off the main road and flick his high beams on. Allura worried about whether he was able to see where he was going as they drove through the desert, but the direction they were going in didn’t seem to matter. He paid attention to the line of mountains stretching along their left side and kept following it until even the stray farm houses on the outskirts of campus were far behind them, nothing but faint glowing specks in the distance. 

He plugged in his phone and was playing quiet music by artists Allura didn’t recognize but kept writing down in her phone while she dozed off in the front seat. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Lance leaning his arm against the window, keeping only one hand on the wheel, and staring sleepily at the road while the wind rustled his hair and tickled his lashes. He handed her his jacket once he saw her shivering against the wind, and letting her eyes trace the line of his jaw while burying her nose in his jacket brought her an inexplicable feeling of peace. 

It didn’t matter that she had assignments due tomorrow, exams set for this week, so many simulator hours still left to complete — Lance was here taking her away from all of it and asking her to put her trust in him that he’d help quiet the noise in her head. 

They drove for about half an hour before Lance stopped on the side of the road and shut off the car. He reached behind him to pull out a few blankets he’d kept folded up in the back seat . “Come around.” 

“We’re going outside?” Allura shivered. 

“It’s nice out! Besides, you can’t get a good look at the view from inside.” 

Allura pulled up her hood and walked to the back of the truck to find Lance packing the cargo bed with blankets. He helped her climb inside before flopping down against the soft bedding he’d created for them. “I only kind of know where we are, but if you drive out far enough you can see  _ every _ single star in the sky.” 

She laid down next to him, keeping about a half-foot of distance between them, and blinked up at the endless swirl of stars gorgeously laid out against the sky, all glimmering shades of silver, gold, and blue and stretching against a smoky, night sky for as far as Allura could see. Students weren’t allowed to drive out this far away from campus, let alone at night where it was easy for them to get lost or accidentally get into a wreck because they saw a ravine or a dip in the road a second too late. But here it felt like they were right on the edge of the world, just short of tipping over and falling straight into a limitless expanse that held more mystery and beauty than Allura could ever hope to imagine. 

“We don’t get views like this in LA,” Lance muttered. “At least not in the city. We were driving through the night in order to get to moving day on time, and the sky looked just like this. And it kept me awake for the whole ride. Just staring out into it and imagining that one day I’d actually get to fly right into that and get to experience it myself.”

Allura smiled. “Couldn’t stay away?” 

“Not for a second. Especially not now. This is the love of my life, and I’m not going to let her go. I’m going to meet her one day even if it means I lose a limb along the way.” 

“What a romantic you are.”

“More like a lovesick idiot, but if it keeps me going I don’t mind the insult.” 

“There’s nothing to insult. She’s a very noble mistress to lay your life down for. I’d do the same.” 

“Looks like we’re fighting for the same girl.” 

“Ten quid to whoever gets her first?” 

Lance’s laughter bubbled out of him without any effort at all, and Allura found herself smiling hard at the sight of his smile lit up by the glow of the stars. “It’s a bet. Although if I had to lose her to anyone, I’d be glad if it was you.” 

Allura tucked her hands behind her head. Her voice came out quieter than she meant for it to, shaky and unsure. “Do you really think I’ll get her?” 

“Do you not? She’s right there. She’s not running away from you. She’s close enough that all you have to do is reach out and grab her.” 

“Sometime she feels too far away,” Allura admitted, “and the secret to getting her died right along with my father.” 

“I don’t think it died at all. I think it’s been with you the whole time. It’s just hard for you to see it because the person you cared about most in the world left so suddenly. I can’t imagine trying to right yourself after that.” 

Allura sighed and turned her head to face him. “I don’t really remember most of it you know?” she confessed. “Hearing the news, the funeral, the will reading, the next few weeks of school...it all blurred together and I can’t remember any of it. My therapist at the time said that it was normal, it’s your mind protecting itself against all of that trauma. But I almost  _ want _ to remember all the pain. I wanted that grief to shock me into some form of clarity so that I could walk away from his death feeling assured. Not like I’m running to catch up to myself.”

Lance hummed. “Running to catch up?”

“Like I’ve fallen down my tether by a few feet. Now I need to get back to where I was before and not get stuck where I am now.”

“And where are you now?” Lance asked. 

Allura scoffed. “I...I have no idea. I don’t know what comes next for me. That usually doesn’t happen.”

“I know you, Allura,” Lance said. “And I know what you want to be. No one our age really knows what the heck we’re doing or what comes next, but you have a conviction that honestly terrifies me because of how strong it is. You know exactly where you want to be and what you have to do to get there. You’re not lost at all. You just need help getting from point A to point B. Everyone needs that.”

“But I need to  _ know _ how to get there,” she explained. “I need that stability. Otherwise I just feel like I have seventy different directions to go in without knowing which is the right one.”

Lance turned on his side and propped himself up with his elbow. “You know, I feel like I know what your problem is with the simulator.”

Allura made a face. “We’re doing critiques now?”

“It’s less a critique and more something I’ve noticed just from hanging out with you a lot. But when you were in the simulator today it was ridiculously obvious.”

“What was obvious?”

Lance tapped her stomach with one finger. “That you don’t trust your gut enough. You’re too busy trusting your head.”

Allura frowned and flipped on her side as well until their noses were just a few inches apart and they only had to whisper to hear each other. “And trusting your head is a bad thing?”

“No, I mean you have to strike a balance. You worry a lot about doing the right thing, and you think constantly about it. So much so that it makes you hesitate and doubt yourself. You’re an amazing pilot Allura, and you’re so talented and so intelligent. I think instead of constantly wondering if something is a good move or the right idea, you should just do it. Don’t think and don’t talk yourself out of it. You’re capable of more than you know.” 

Allura bit her lip to keep from smiling too hard, and for some reason having Lance this close made even a chilly night like this feel impossibly warm. “How do you know all that?”

“I pay attention. And when it comes to you, I make sure to pay to pay extra close attention.” 

“Why?”

Lance laughed and dipped his head so that Allura couldn’t see his face. “Do I have to say it?” 

“Say what?” Allura laughed. “Come on, tell me.” 

“Nah, it’s nothing,” Lance insisted. “Maybe some other time. After you pass your exams. Then I promise I’ll tell you.” 

“You mean when we  _ both _ pass. You’re going to figure out this simulator too, don’t worry.” 

Lance shrugged. “I guess...”

“Oh, stop it. You don’t get to talk me up and then doubt yourself at the same time. You’re impossibly talented and you are going to be capable of so many great things. You worked so hard to get here, and that’s going to be rewarded. I don’t think you realize how much you keep surprising me everyday. You’ve nothing to worry about.”

He peeked up at her through his lashes. “And how do  _ you _ know all that?”

“Because I also pay extra close attention.” 

Lance gave her a tired smile and reached up to brush some of her bangs behind her ears and away from her eyes. “Thank you.” 

“You don’t need to thank me. I’m only saying the truth. I should be thanking you.” 

“I call what I see, too. And I don’t just mean thank you for the vote of confidence I mean just...thank you for being you. And trying so hard and going after what you want so fiercely. Makes me want to try harder and be better too. You’re honestly such a wonderful person, and I know there’s so much that you’re still capable of.”

And there it was again — all that earnestness that filled Allura with this strange feeling that made her want to do exactly what Lance recommended. Trust her gut. Do something because it felt right and not necessarily because it had a purpose or a reason. 

His face was illuminated only by the flashlight from his cell phone but it brought attention to his eyes which were the first beautiful thing she noticed about him the first day they met. And she supposed that was the word for him. Beautiful. A beautiful boy with a beautiful heart and a beautiful smile. She felt so thoroughly wrapped up in him, and it wasn’t just because she was snuggled deep into his jacket that smelled so much like him. Every time he spoke and pulled her up from where she’d fallen, it was impossible not to get completely lost in him. And when you’re lost in people it’s so easy to just give into their pull and do something silly. 

She was watching his eyes drift to her lips before catching himself, as if he were afraid she’d be offended. But Allura realized that she wouldn’t mind kissing him. In fact, sitting under the stars here with him was such a perfect romantic cliche that it was taking all of her self control not to just catch him by surprise and steal a short one to last the rest of the night. 

But a slight hesitant thought made her grab his chin and press a kiss to his forehead instead of where she really wanted to leave one. It was probably just her own nervousness, a flare of self consciousness, maybe even a paranoid feeling that all the signals she was picking up from Lance were all innocuous details she was reading all wrong. So a forehead kiss seemed like the safest indulgent option, and if her hand was shaking this much just from one short peck, she couldn’t even imagine what more would feel like. 

Lance had a look on his face that made it seem like she’s just presented the world to him all wrapped up in the palm of her hand, and he actually  _ giggled _ into the sleeve of his shirt while Allura wiped away the lipstick mark she left behind.

“You’re like a little boy,” she teased. “That was barely a kiss.”

“Don’t care,” he beamed. “Still counts.”

“Don’t let it get to your head now.” 

“But you were the one who left it on my head!” 

“Oh my god,  _ stop it! _ ” She let her head drop against his chest while they both snickered at the joke, and Lance’s arms came to wrap around her and smooth out the hair on the back of her head until they both calmed and quieted. 

Lance was staring up at the sky again while Allura let her fingers trace up and down the line of buttons on his shirt and watched his chest rise and fall with his breathing. “When we pass our exams, we should go out and do something.” 

Allura bit her lip and grinned into his jacket. “What kind of something?”

“I don’t know. Dinner. Catch a movie. Go for a drive. Something to celebrate.” 

“I’d like that. It’s also excellent motivation for passing. Makes up for the three weeks of Hell we have in front of us.” 

Lance gave her an encouraging squeeze. “Look. When you’re in that simulator, what’s your first priority?” 

Allura didn’t hesitate. “Following protocol. Getting my protocol points.” 

“And what racks up points quicker? Protocol points or execution points.” 

“Execution, I suppose.” 

“Not checking your oxygen levels once or twice or veering off the suggested course doesn’t really make a difference so long as you’re hitting your objective points. Believe it or not, that jerk Kogane clued me in on that. That’s why the kid gets away with never checking his systems and never staying on course but popping out with the highest simulator scores in the class. It’s because he just  _ does  _ things. He flies without thinking and he finishes all his objectives in record time. That’s what you have to do. Fly without thinking. Don’t second guess yourself. Don’t assume there’s always going to be a better option. Sometimes you just have to jump in, go for it, and deal with whatever comes after. But at least you’re always moving forward.” 

“You make it sound so easy,” Allura pouted. 

“Nah, definitely not easy. Hell, I haven’t passed this last course either. We’re both in the same boat. But I don’t doubt you for a second. And listen, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to help you. Even though your dad isn’t around anymore, you’re not without people who care about you and want to see you do amazing things. I’ll never stop being one of those people.” 

She rested her chin on his chest and reached up to play with the ends of his hair. “I feel like I don’t tell you enough how much of an incredible person you are.” 

“Oh, come on — ”

“No, I’m serious. I can’t think of many people who are as thoughtful as you are. And all for my sake. That’s a gorgeous quality to have, and I really admire and respect you so much. You’re truly an amazing person.” 

Lance grabbed her hand and left a long kiss on the back, long enough to make Allura’s toes curl and her heart race. “I can’t take all the credit. I had amazing inspiration standing in front of me the whole time.” 

They didn’t stay lounging and star gazing for too much longer after that. Once Lance checked the time and saw that it was much later than he ever expected to keep them out, they got back into the car and worked together to figure out how to get back to campus. Allura subtly laced her fingers with Lance’s and left their intertwined hands resting on the dashboard for the entire ride. They played music, laughed over Lance’s jokes, poked their heads out the window to marvel at the landscape lit against the full moon, and fell back into their same dynamic as if nothing had changed. 

And in reality, she supposed nothing had. It didn’t feel like anything had exploded or permanently shifted. Holding hands and sharing small kisses seemed like a simple, lateral move. A next breath that followed effortlessly after the last. Very little had to change and she supposed that’s what was so wonderful about having Lance around. It didn’t really matter what kind of relationship they had and it didn’t really matter how it manifested — he was important to her and she cherished him. Fully, completely, and undoubtedly. 

He snuck her back to her room and left one last kiss on her forehead before wishing her good night and walking back to his own room. Allura laid wide awake in her bed, smiling into her pillow and feeling like all the weight that had been pulling her down and making her feel sick with doubt had gotten just a little bit lighter. And all the giddy energy was doing a lot more than making her heart feel like it was about to burst open. 

It filled her with a new purpose. 

* * *

 

The structure of exam week was nothing short of diabolical. 

There were only two reading days in between their last day of classes and the date of their first exam where they could cram and squeeze in a few more hours of practical training. On the first reading day, Lance marched into Allura’s room with four orders of take out, a keurig that he most definitely was not allowed to have in his room, and all his pillows and blankets, announcing that he wasn’t leaving this room until he “understood the ever loving fuck out of physics.” 

The mess hall was empty, no one was driving into town anymore, and the halls were quiet with a foreboding stench of dread and panic that signaled exam season was in full swing. But Lance tried to keep things sane. Every two hours, they took a break to watch one episode of  _ The Office _ and he set alarms to make sure they ate, drank water, and napped. And every two hours he’d send Allura a text: “You are smart, talented, and beautiful. You’ve got this.” 

There was no sugar coating their written exams — six exams, three hours each, all spanning three days, and after each one Lance and Allura would both head to their rooms to crash and try to get enough sleep before the next one. 

Their practicals, on the other hand, were all being held individually. Everyone received a two hour slot during which they’d be asked to complete their fitness, combat, survival first aid, and flight simulator exams. At the end of those exams, their points would be tallied and they’d be notified right then and there which program they were going to be admitted to. 

“I think my tests are like two hours before yours,” Lance commented as he looked over her shoulder to stare at her emails. “Geez, are you the last block or something?” 

“The literal. Last. One,” Allura glared, leaning back against the gym lockers. “As if the anticipation wasn’t killing me enough.” 

Lance wiped a towel down his face and shucked off the tank top he’d spent the past hour working out in. “Hey, you’ll be fine. We can’t possibly prepare anymore. We’ve practically been living in the sim labs for the past few days and I don’t think we could’ve murdered that fitness course any harder than we did today. Don’t think there’s much more we can do at this point.” 

“Ugh, I know. I just can’t stand this being drawn out anymore,” she complained. “It’s been a whole semester of work and I just want to skip straight to the part where we’re both walking with our new fighter class badges.” 

“And it’ll come!” Lance promised. He tipped her chin up and wiped away the sweaty bangs that were sticking to her forehead. “I’m going to be standing right outside the sim lab when you come out. And we’ll scream and cry like little girls about you passing and then I’ll whisk you off to the movies where we can gorge on all that gross, disgusting, buttery movie popcorn you love complaining about.” 

Allura giggled. “Oh boy. Can’t wait.” 

“Why are you saying it like that?” 

“Like what?” 

“Like you can  _ totally _ wait forever for it.” 

“I didn’t say it like that, I was serious! I can’t wait. I promise.” 

Lance pouted and made little whimpering noises until she flicked his nose and gently pushed his hair back. “Oh stop it. You know there’s nothing else I’d rather be greeted with than your face and a huge hug right after my exams are done.” 

“Holy shit, I give great hugs though.” 

“I know you do. See? It’s perfect.” 

Lance draped an arm around her shoulder as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. “You’re gonna do great, ‘Lura. And by this time tomorrow you’re gonna be a fighter pilot.”

Allura nodded and tried to will the words into existence. “I’m going to be a fighter pilot.” 

Lance stayed in Allura’s room until midnight, watching television, talking, and trying to keep her distracted from doing anymore preparation than she should’ve. He left a short kiss on the top of her head before heading back to his room and warning her not to stay up too late. Surprisingly, she did as she was told which was a shock considering that she was usually the one out of the two who was more likely to stay studying until the sun came up. But it backfired when she woke up two hours earlier than she meant to and couldn’t fall back asleep. 

So she went to the mess hall to get some breakfast. Went to the gymnasium to run a couple of laps and shake off the nervous energy. FaceTimed Coran who insisted on getting on the phone with her right before her exams so he could wish her luck. Texted Lance a bunch of stupid Twitter memes she found so that he could get a good laugh in before he headed in for his own exam block. She even listened to some of her father’s old voicemails that she still kept on her phone whenever she needed to hear his voice. It was taking all of her effort not to pull out her flight manual and get in some last minute cramming, but Lance was right. There wasn’t anything else to be done now. Allura owed it to herself to have as much faith in her success as Lance did. 

When she finally got dressed and reported to the senior training rooms for her exams, she almost turned right back around to cry in the hallway when she realized it was Iverson proctoring her exams instead of another senior officer. Rumor was he rarely ever passed cadets during their fighter pilot exams and that he purposely gave students a hard time in order to “weed out the cadets with no spine and no discipline.” She was honestly afraid she might throw up. 

Allura saluted Iverson once he noticed her enter the room. “Afternoon, cadet. You’re the last one of the semester. And luck you! There’s still a spot open should all go well.” 

“I’m planning on it, sir.” 

He chuckled. “Well let’s see if that confidence holds up after the fitness exam. You’re on course B and you’ve got eight minutes. Get to it, cadet.”

The fitness exam was a breeze — it was just a run through of a course that Lance and Allura had run through a hundred times. A semester’s worth of combat training was only enough to teach them the basics of hand to hand, so that exam was nothing more than a couple of spars with the assistant instructor and demonstrating a few holds, strikes, blocks, and takedowns. And finally the survival first aid exam was a word-for-word repeat of a role play they’ve demonstrated in class on at least two separate occasions. All in all, nothing she wasn’t already prepared for like Lance suspected. 

Except it was hard to bask in the brief wave of success when Iverson was tallying up her points right in front of her during their walk to the sim labs. It was so hard to read his face and decide if the scowl he was wearing was because he was concentrating on his notes or because he was thoroughly disgusted with her performance. For all she knew she thought she had done wonderfully meanwhile Iverson had picked out about fifty different mistakes and already had her cargo pilot papers ready. 

All of her nerves had finished coming to a head when Allura had changed into her flight suit and saw Iverson loading all of the proper settings into the simulator. He sat back on the observation deck and spoke to her through the comms system as she headed inside the simulator. “You have ten minutes to complete the course, cadet. You need at least a score of 500 to pass. If your deductions exceed 250, it’s an automatic failure.” 

Allura swallowed the lump in her throat. There were plenty of pilots who had managed to finish their exams with incredibly high scores and fast times but were barred from the program because their deductions were too high. It was the perfect indicator of a pilot who was quick but sloppy, talented but imprecise, and ultimately no good for such a competitive program. But so long as she didn’t pay too much attention to the counter and the constant rise and fall of her points, she’d be just fine. “Understood, sir.” 

Iverson gestured to the simulator “You’re the last exam of the day, do try and end it on a good note for both of our sakes.” 

The controls hummed to life as Allura strapped herself into the pilot’s seat. She could briefly hear Iverson’s voice booming from just outside the sim telling her to begin, but Allura took a couple of seconds to herself to remember what Lance had told her: breathe. Don’t overthink. Don’t second guess. Don’t hesitate. If something feels right, go for it and don’t look back. 

And most importantly, don’t doubt yourself. 

Everything came with a practiced ease right up until she locked onto the distress beacon and saw her field of obstacles coming up on her display. She quickly double checked all of her systems one last time and, rather impulsively, decided that she’d only check them again if they started to dip to critical levels. The majority of her attention needed to be put into some very clever piloting, especially after realizing that Iverson had definitely lowered the grace period on this course. She barely even had a moment to blink before the asteroid belt immediately turned into an incomprehensibly dense death trap and allowed no time to gain her bearings. 

Figures. He really was trying to make sure that as few cadets passed this course as possible. 

It didn’t take long before she had to veer off course and lean into her controls in order to slip in between asteroids with just barely enough clearance before jerking sharply to the side in order to dodge another. It was much more chaotic than she was used to piloting and she could feel the way her body leaned into every move instead of staying ramrod straight against her chair. As much as she felt the simulator shudder and as much as the adrenaline shooting through her body made her sweat, it all felt natural. The minutes flew by and the fact that she had gotten this far in the course without a single breach skyrocketed her confidence to the point where she only needed to spare half a glance at her systems displays before moving right back into motion. 

Allura burst out of the asteroid field and heard the small click on her console that meant one of her objective points had been successfully checked off. She began her descent and had to move against the pull of gravity as debris from the crashed ship she was rescuing cluttered her path. She could count on one hand the amount of times she’d successfully gotten to this point of the course, and the excitement was making her heart race and her skin tingle. One small scuff and two deductions for not checking her oxygen levels were all she had received for her efforts, but she was still going. The integrity of her ship was still holding strong, and she’d officially cleared her second objective. 

She saw a huge body of water coming up on her display and pulled back on her controls as hard as she could until her craft levelled out and coasted along the surface, heading for a smoke screen off in the distance that must have been the pilot she was trying to rescue. Allura took a huge breath and looked above to check all of her stats and she almost felt like crying. Eight minutes and sixteen seconds, 100 in deductions, and an overall score of 520. Certainly not the best score in the history of the Galaxy Garrison nor the quickest time, but it was a definite pass. 

Allura managed to successfully land the ship and hit her last objective before her screen flashed that the simulation had been completed. She bounced in her seat for a couple of seconds and got out all of her smiling and laughing before she slipped outside, saluted Iverson, and watched him as he entered her scores on his notes. 

“Definite improvement from class, cadet,” Iverson praised. “I’ve seen better. But good work.” 

He wasn’t taking this win away from her. She merely pursed her lips to hide her smile and thanked him. 

“How do you think you performed overall?” he asked her as he flipped through the rest of her scores. 

“Satisfactory, sir,” she replied, trying to stay humble in case a cocky attitude threw him off. “I’m hoping all of the hard work paid off.” 

Iverson kept her sitting in silence for a couple of minutes before he started to fill out and sign a form on the back of his clipboard. “Well, all of your written exams received passes from your instructors. Physical fitness was exceptional. Combat, exemplary. Survival first aid, good. And your simulation course was successfully passed within the allotted time and with enough final points. And no egregious deductions. So I’d say you did more than satisfactory, cadet.” 

Allura blinked up at him and let her salute drop. “Are you saying…?”

Iverson pulled the paper off of his clipboard and handed it to Allura. “Congratulations, cadet. Welcome to the Fighter Class. There’s your registration form. Make sure to take that straight to the Academic Advising office the first day of the next semester. Your new class schedule is attached.” 

Allura snatched the paper from him and quickly scanned the top of the page. There it was. Her name. Her student ID number. Her official fighter class seal right on top. A senior officer’s signature. All of her classes for the next semester laid out for her. It was all here. Everything in place. Nothing missing and nothing forged. 

She’d done it. 

She’d fucking  _ done _ it! 

Without thinking, she threw her arms around Iverson’s waist and hugged him tight enough to make him stumble. “Thank you!!” she squealed. “Thank you thank you thank you so much, you don’t know how much this means to me! I promise I won’t let you down. I’ll be the best student, I’ll work hard, and you won’t regret this!” 

“At ease, cadet!” he grunted. 

“Sorry,” Allura laughed, stepping away. “Sorry, sorry. Just...really really grateful. And excited. Oh god, my uncle is going to start crying when he sees this.”

“Gratitude received.” He adjusted his uniform, and Allura swore she saw a hint of a smile on his face. “Go on, get out of here. Tell your folks. Enjoy your break.” 

“Yes sir! Thank you again sir!” 

Allura sprinted out of the simulation labs and sent a quick picture of her registration forms to Coran, Lance, and all of her friends back at home. She could feel all of her happiness bursting out of her as she took the steps down to the main floor three at a time, and for the first time since she’d walked on campus everything ahead of her felt possible. The rest of her time here was less a daunting reality and more an exciting undertaking that she knew she could accomplish against any and all odds. 

And yes she had herself to thank, but she also had Lance to thank. Lance who had never given up on her. Lance who she treasured for everything he was and everything he’d done for her. Lance who was waiting downstairs for her so they could celebrate their victory together. 

The lobby of the building was still filled to the brim with senior students who still had their exams to take. Allura tried to look out for the height, the brown hair, the crooked cadet’s cap, but she couldn’t see him anywhere. She even looked in the halls leading to the stairs and the elevators with no luck. She checked her phone and saw that he hadn’t answered her text and that he was offline on Facebook messenger. 

He probably fell asleep before he came to get her. The poor thing had been keeping horrible hours despite all the naps he’d been trying to get in the past couple of days, so she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d passed out right after his exam. 

Allura made her way back to the dorms and checked her room before heading to Lance’s. She knocked on his door and sent him another text asking him to open up before his roommate, Hunk, opened the door, looking surprised to see her standing there. 

“Oh hey Allura….” Hunk greeted, visibly trying to keep his voice down. “Did you just come back from your exam? How did it go?”

“Really well!” she grinned. “Passed! Just got my forms and everything. Lance and I were supposed to meet up afterwards. Is he there?” 

Hunk bit his lip and looked over his shoulder before gesturing for Allura to move out of the doorway. He pocketed his dorm key and closed the door behind him so that they were both standing in the hallway. “Sorry,” he said, “I didn’t want him to overhear us. He seems like he needs a lot of rest.” 

“Is everything okay?” she frowned. 

Hunk rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, man….I-I feel like this is better coming from him, but he’s really not up for talking right now. And I don’t want you to worry.” 

“What happened?” she asked. “Is something wrong? Did he get hurt during his exam?”

“No, no, he’s physically fine. Came back safe and sound. But he sort of just crawled into bed once he got here and told me not to let anyone in. Which is weird for him so I sat down with him and tried to talk to him and...well…

“Well  _ what _ ?”

Hunk barely spoke above a whisper. “...he didn’t pass.”

Allura blinked for a few seconds, positive that she’d heard him incorrectly. That was a joke. A horrible one. Of course Lance passed, that’s the way this was supposed to turn out. This was the part where they were supposed to be gushing over their scores and taking a long drive out to town while they screamed out the windows in victory. But Hunk was staring pitifully over his shoulder, looking more useless than a best friend should ever feel and suddenly everything in Allura’s chest tightened painfully. It was a slow wave of disbelief followed by outrage that was threatening to morph into anger, but it was all snuffed out when the pity started to set in and make it hard for her to speak. She could only manage a shocked whisper as she pulled Hunk closer. “You’re not serious…” 

“I wish,” Hunk frowned. “But yeah. He just missed the fighter pilot cut by just a little bit. They handed him the registration forms for Cargo Class.” 

“Cargo Class!?” she exclaimed. Allura looked over Hunk’s shoulder at the closed door behind him and tried to shove past. “Let me talk to him.” 

Hunk held his arm out and calmly pushed her back into the hallway. “Allura, I really don’t think that’s a good idea — ”

“Let me talk to him!” Allura insisted. “You don’t understand, we were supposed to do this together, we were both supposed to pass! It was both of us or neither of us, there must have been some mistake.” 

“That’s what he thought too,” Hunk explained. “He asked two senior officers to tally up his scores again to make sure. It wasn’t enough.” 

Allura started to feel a burn in the back of her throat. “How? We were studying and practicing together, we both had this. How could he have failed?” 

Hunk shrugged. “I’m not sure either, really. From what he told me, all of his written scores were damn near perfect and his practicals were all great right up until the flight simulator. He just didn’t get enough points.” 

The simulator. The damn simulator, the one thing they were both worried about right up until the last minute. The one thing Lance was struggling with most. All that practice ended up not being enough. 

“He kept letting me borrow his simulator hours to practice,” Allura realized quietly. “And he never said anything, he kept saying it was fine and that he didn’t need them.”

Hunk huffed. “Yeah, that sounds like Lance.” 

“He kept making all of these little jokes! Like he was happy to lose out to me or that he wasn’t as good as I kept telling him he was. And sometimes he’d only talk about me passing and not the both of us. I thought he was just kidding and being humble but did he really not think he would pass?” 

“I don’t think it’s that,” Hunk said. “I think he wanted to pass and really hoped he would. But he sort of came here with this really bad case of imposter syndrome. All of this ended up being a lot harder than he thought it would be. That guy is always trying to stay positive and is always looking on the bright side, but I think he was secretly afraid that he didn’t have the talent to back him up. Like he was always anticipating a reality where this didn’t work out no matter how much it terrified him.” 

Allura stared down at her feet. “He didn’t tell me any of that…” 

“Didn’t expect him to. He doesn’t like people worrying over him. The only reason he tells me all of this stuff is because I’ve known him for so long and I sorta make him.” Hunk lowered his voice and looked in both directions as if he were afraid someone was overhearing. “Don’t tell him I told you this, but he really likes you. More than I’ve ever seen him like anyone ever. And he didn’t want to distract you because he saw how much you were struggling. He wanted to make sure you were only focusing on yourself. Lance is totally the suffer in silence type. It’s super frustrating, but Lance hates being a burden more than anything else.” 

“But that isn’t fair! I get to follow my dreams and he doesn’t? Why would he ever think he’s a burden? As if I wouldn’t have put as much of myself into helping him as he did for me.” Allura covered her mouth and turned away from Hunk. “I should’ve noticed something was wrong. I should’ve helped him more. He did all of this for me and I just let him fail.” 

Hunk laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it isn’t your fault at all. The reason he did as well as he did is because of you. And hey, I heard the cargo pilot program is actually pretty cool! You guys might still share some classes together. And he’ll still get to go out into space.” 

“It’s not what he wants,” Allura said. “This isn’t what he worked hard for. He didn’t come this far just to fall short of what he wanted. There has to be something we can do.” 

“All exam scores are final Allura — ”

“No there’s something,” Allura insisted. “There has to be a way to get him into this program. A loophole. Maybe they really did make a mistake. Maybe he can try again. I’ll ask around and see if anyone knows. The older students would know something.” 

Hunk sighed. “There’s no stopping you, is there?” 

Allura bit her lip. “I know he doesn’t want to see anyone. And I know he needs time alone. But can you tell him that I came? And that I’m going to figure something out? And that I’m here if he wants to talk to someone or wants some company?” 

“You know I will. He’s lucky to have someone like you around, and I think he knows that. He just...needs space.” 

“Don’t worry,” Allura said. “This is all going to be temporary. I’m not giving up on him yet.” 

“What are you going to go do?” Hunk asked. 

“I’m not sure yet,” Allura admitted. “But there’s still a week left before the semester is officially over. That’s enough time to figure out something.” 

* * *

 

Allura spent hours scouring her student handbook, the Garrison website, all of her flight program forms, and sending emails to all of her instructors with absolutely no luck. 

There were cases where students could be allowed to retake exams because of illnesses, family emergencies, or extenuating circumstances, but none of those applied to Lance. There were even cases where tests could be taken again should a student receive a failing grade so long as they had instructor permission. But Lance hadn’t failed anything, only gotten just a hair’s breadth lower than what his personal expectations were. There was nothing that Allura could find that would allow him to go for a retake. 

In the Garrison’s opinion, there was nothing for Lance to be disappointed about. The official exam scores were posted online the very next morning, and Lance had by far the highest scores out of everyone in Cargo Class. They were so high, that he was first on the waitlist for Fighter Class. It all sounded good, but Lance wouldn’t be allowed into the fighter pilot program unless one of them failed out or dropped out, and there was no way Allura was going to bank on that in order to help Lance get a spot. 

It was so impossible because she could already tell what the response would be if she went and pleaded to Lance’s instructors about getting him a spot: they can’t make exceptions for everyone who doesn’t do as well as they’d like. They don’t leave struggling students behind in the Galaxy Garrison, but Lance doesn’t fit the profile of a struggling student. Hundreds of students don’t make the fighter pilot cut every year. Lance wasn’t special and Lance wasn’t owed any exceptions. 

Which meant that the only thing that Allura had to hold onto was that Lance’s scores were a fluke and that some poor senior officer would take pity on him and allow him into the program after all, or at the very least let him sit for his exam again. 

Lance hadn’t left his room all evening nor the next morning. Allura walked out of her room to find Hunk bringing him his breakfast and giving Allura this sad sort of shrug before leaving it on the floor and heading to his own exams. 

She tried knocking on the door a couple of times to see if he’d let her in, offering whatever help or company he needed even if it meant saying absolutely nothing at all. But he never answered, and she could never blame him. Allura remembered how she was when she’d first arrived here — so tormented and so not in the mood that even venturing outside seemed like a chore. So she kissed the door, told him she was just a few doors down, and kept texting him messages throughout the day for him to see. 

_ You are smart, talented, and beautiful. I’m here for you.  _

After almost an entire day of research, she found herself sitting in Simulator Twelve, cycling through the dozens and dozens of flights logs in the hopes that she’d be able to find a couple of passing scores from Lance to show to Iverson and their other instructors. Allura had seen him pass the simulator. If he could do it once he could do it again. All she needed to do was convince everyone else. Maybe she could pull rank and mention who her father was. Maybe she could get Coran to call in a favor. 

It wasn’t exactly honorable, but Lance deserved this and she wasn’t going to give up. 

Allura barely heard when the doors to the sim lab opened and a student signed in with their ID card. “I’ve got this reserved for the next two hours. Get out.”

“You have it reserved starting at noon,” Allura answered back, not looking up from the main console. “I still have ten minutes.” 

The visitor snorted. “Well, damn, okay. Mind if I hang out in here then? I’m meeting someone.” 

“Do whatever you want,” Allura mumbled. “I’ll be done here soon.” 

Allura saw them walking closer out of the corner of her eye. “Hey wait a minute we have class together. Allura, right?”

She looked up and saw that the student was Keith Kogane, draping his cadet jacket over his shoulder and holding out his hand for a friendly shake. He was now  _ officially _ the best pilot in the class now that he had finished his exams with one of the highest simulator scores the Garrison had seen in the past decade. Lance would’ve been furious. Not just because of his talent, but because Keith barely studied, skipped class at least once a week, and yet there was still 200 points separating his simulator score from Allura’s. 

Everyone called him a prodigy, and as much as Allura envied his skill she couldn’t help from admiring his piloting. But this was probably the first time since the semester started that they’ve shared more than a handful of words with one another. She didn’t even know that he knew her name. 

She sighed and held her hand out to shake. “Yeah. Congrats on getting into the fighter pilot program.”

“You too. What are you still doing in here? You already passed, you might as well catch an early flight home.” 

“I’m doing a favor for a friend,” she answered. “Besides, I could say the same for you.” 

Keith fell into the chair next to Allura and propped his feet up on the console, a casual posture that he could only get away with because there wasn’t a senior officer in the room. “I have an old friend who’s trying out to be the pilot for the Kerberos mission. It’s not until next semester but he wants to get the practice in and I like watching him. Sometimes he handles the console while I try out the simulator and gives me pointers. He booked the next two hours.” 

“Well, I’ll be out of your way soon,” Allura promised.

Keith frowned and peeked at the logs that Allura was cycling through. “What are you doing?” 

“Trying to pull up all of my friend’s old flight scores. But there’s so many of them to sort through that I’ve been here for a while.” 

“Is it that Lance kid?” 

“How did you know?” 

Keith shrugged. “You guys are always hanging out, so I just assumed. I thought he was your boyfriend or something until he squawked like a bird and denied it when I asked. Cargo pilot, right?” 

Allura grit her teeth. “Not for long. I’m trying to see if there’s a way he can still get into the fighter pilot program.” 

“Wait, are you trying to pull him up a rank?” 

“Trying being the operative word. I’m hitting a couple of snags.” 

“Well, yeah, you can’t just get him into the program if he doesn’t have the scores,” Keith explained. “People try to do that every year. Every pilot comes in here wanting to be a fighter pilot, they practically prepare what they’re going to say to students who want to try for it again. Just tell him to try again next year. Or wait for one of us to fail out.” 

Allura shut off the console, deciding it wasn’t worth her time anymore. “That’s not good enough. To just wait a whole year? To be miserable in a program he doesn’t want to be in for a whole year? That’s not the way it was supposed to go.” 

“I mean it’s not the way it was supposed to go for — ”

“I know!” Allura said, louder than she meant to, loud enough for Keith to jump in his seat and push it a couple of inches away from her. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, it’s just...I’m not trying to say that he’s special or different or anything like that. I know how this works. But we made a promise to each other and I would feel horrible if I didn’t at least try for his sake.” 

“What promise?” 

“We swore to each other that we’d both become fighter pilots,” Allura explained. “It was the first thing we bonded over when we met and it was the one thing the two of us wanted more than anything. We were both terrified by all the work ahead of us but it was fine because we were going to help each other succeed. The only reason I even passed was because he helped me every step of the way. So I owe it to him to at least try and see if there’s a way he can make the program.” 

“That’s not your responsibility,” Keith pointed out. “You can only do so much for someone. At the end of the day part of it lies in their hands. They have to do the rest of the work. Maybe you did all you could and Lance just fell a little short. Doesn’t mean he’s not talented. Just means it wasn’t meant to be.” 

“I think there’s a lot you can do for someone who’s willing to meet you halfway. And Lance more than met me halfway.” 

Keith smirked. “You’ve really got it bad for him, don’t you?” 

“Shut up! It’s not just that,” Allura scowled. “It’s about….faith. ” 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

Allura stared into her lap. “Sometimes when you tally all the numbers and add up all the points, it isn’t enough. And it’ll never be enough. Some things are just inherently hopeless. Partly because a person physically can’t do anymore and partly because the universe just doesn’t know how to cut someone a break. But have you ever had someone believe in you hard enough for all of that not to matter? Against all odds, against everyone else’s expectations, and against every concept of logic...someone’s faith in you made the impossible possible?” 

Keith stared at her thoughtfully but didn’t say anything. Instead he stared off at a point in front of him while Allura kept on talking. 

“Lance had no logical reason to believe in me,” she explained. “He didn’t know me. It was just a feeling he had. An instinct that I could accomplish what I didn’t even think I could. And he was right! I wouldn’t have dug deep enough to get this fair if he didn’t have such pure faith in me. So maybe this is a lost cause and maybe I’m being silly, but I have pure faith in him. I know he can do this. I  _ know _ he can make it far. I just have to try hard enough for him. I have to believe there’s a solution. And I’m not going to stop believing in him.” 

Allura glanced up at the clock in the corner and saw that it was just about noon and that she had to clear out the lab for Keith. She collected her things and slung her bag over her shoulder. “I’m sorry for sounding so defensive. I just can’t stand to see him so heartbroken. It kills me just thinking about it.” 

Keith lifted his hands. “Hey, I get it. No need to apologize. Besides, you sound just like my friend Shiro.” 

“How so?” 

“Because he used to always say that faith in yourself and faith in other people was already half the work done. I mean sure the guy always believes in effort and a good work ethic, but if you don’t have people rooting for you that’s enough to make even the most talented man in the world crumble under the pressure. That’s probably why he believed in me so hard…” 

Allura frowned. “Believed in you….” 

“I used to be this piece of shit who didn’t want to work hard, didn’t see the point, and probably wasn’t going to amount to much without his help. And it’s like you said. He had no reason to have faith in me but he did anyway. And it helped. Look at me now.” 

“He sounds like a very good friend.” 

Keith smiled. “He’s a lot more than that but yeah.” He stared at Allura for a couple of seconds before sighing and hanging his head. “Fuck me. I can’t believe I’m about to help this idiot.” 

“Pardon?” 

“You said he didn’t make it into the program, but what did he fuck up?” Keith asked. “What did he fail?” 

“Nothing,” Allura answered immediately. “Written exams were perfect, and so were almost all of his practicals. It was just the simulator score that wasn’t quite enough.” 

“How much under benchmark was it?” 

“Only ten points.” 

“Are you positive it was exactly ten?” 

“A hundred percent.”

“And he came here on their merit scholarship right?”

“Yes. Why are you asking?” 

Keith pulled his feet down and waved Allura closer. “Alright, you didn’t hear this from me. Technically students aren’t supposed to know about this, but Shiro clued me onto this back when he was a first year student. Apparently the instructors had a habit of pulling strings for some of their scholarship students in the event that their scores came up shorter than expected, and it became a sort of unspoken policy.” 

“What policy?” 

“In the event of final exams like this, if a merit scholar has only one unsatisfactory grade — and  _ only if _ that grade is no more than fifteen points below standard — you could in theory make an appeal and say that the score was a fluke since that’s typically what the simulator’s margin of error is. If it’s approved, the student is allowed one retake that has to take place no more than 48 hours after the original exam date. I’d recommend going to Montgomery. She’s usually really cool about it. Iverson fucking hates that we still do this, so don’t bother asking.” 

Allura grabbed Keith’s hands. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” 

“The idiot’s lucky he’s not an idiot, so yes he can retake his simulator test. But he’s gotta do it within the next two days otherwise it’s no dice. So tell him to get his shit together.” 

Allura’s face lit up. “Oh my God!” 

“Get a copy of his exam scores and take them to Montgomery before she leaves for vacation. And tell him to stop acting like a goddamn hero and just complete the course like a normal human being. You don’t get points for showing off.” 

Allura launched herself at him and pulled him into a hug that had Keith groaning and lifting his arms up away from her. “Thank you!!! Thank you thank you Keith, you’re an absolute life saver. I owe you one!”

“You don’t owe me anything, just get off and hurry up! And don’t you dare tell Lance that I helped you help him. I’ll never live that down.” 

* * *

 

Montgomery didn’t need to be sold on a bloody thing. 

She remembered Lance’s Garrison application and was actually the one senior officer who had pushed the hardest for him to receive a merit scholarship to cover his tuition. The moment she saw his simulator scores she signed all the paperwork and insisted on proctoring his exam herself. “That boy can make it,” she promised Allura. “I don’t have a doubt in my mind.” 

They scheduled everything for the following afternoon, and once everything was confirmed Allura booked it towards the barracks and flew up the stairs until she made it to Lance’s room. 

Allura pounded on his door with both fists, his exam scores and Montgomery’s written recommendation clutched in her hands. “Lance! Lance open up! It’s me Allura I need to talk to you!” 

She was drawing the attention of the students in the neighboring dorms who were poking their heads out of their rooms and telling her to quiet down, but Allura paid them no mind. They were on a time crunch here and she didn’t have time to come back and try again later. She stayed there yelling for him and practically bringing down his door until he answered her, rubbing his eyes as if he’d just woken from a nap. “Allura? Is something wrong?” 

“Quite the opposite!” she beamed, bouncing on her toes. “Can I come in?” 

Lance sighed and leaned his forehead against the door. “I’d really love to hang out Allura, but I’m not in the mood. I kinda just want to sleep off all this funk so that I’m not too much of a killjoy when I drive back home — ”

“It’ll only be a few minutes,” she promised. “Besides, it’s amazing news.” 

“What news?” 

Allura held out the forms she was holding. “What if I told you there was a way to get you into the fighter pilot program?” 

Lance’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what?” 

Allura let herself in, sat Lance down on his bed, and put everything she’d spent the past two hours collecting in his hands. “I did some digging and I think there’s a loophole that we can use to get you a retake.” 

“Wait, you’ve been digging?” Lance asked. 

“Just a little bit. Hunk told me about you not making the cut and I haven’t sat still since. I’ve been spending the past day trying to see if there was a way we could appeal your scores or get you take them again and I found something! You only needed ten more points on the simulator to make the cut. I showed Montgomery all of your scores and she agreed that you could easily make it into the program if you tried one more time. So she signed all of the appeal paperwork and wrote you an amazing recommendation letter. She even agreed to proctor your exam tomorrow! I stole Simulator Twelve for the next four hours. The two of us can run it over and over again until you feel confident and then you can take the test again! You still have a chance of making it!” 

Lance scanned the letter that Montgomery had written for him and found the appeal paperwork that had his revised exam date on it. “How did you do all this so quick? You must have been running around like crazy.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Allura said. “We made a promise to each other and I’m going to see it through. I’m not resting until we both get into this program and this is the best shot we have at doing that.” 

Lance smiled sadly at her and handed all of the papers back. “Allura you really didn’t need to do all of this. I’m fine with how everything turned out, really.”

Allura furrowed her brows. “What are you talking about?” 

“I don’t want to make it seem like I’m not grateful. I am. You’re amazing, and I can’t even believe that you went through all of this trouble for me. But I got the score that I got because it’s what I deserved. I tried my best but it wasn’t good enough and I’m….fine with that. I was probably being too ambitious by trying to make it to fighter pilot class. I mean look at Keith and look at you. The two of you are incredible pilots, I can’t measure up to that.” 

“What are you even saying?” she asked. “You’re a remarkable pilot, Lance, you deserve to be a fighter pilot.” 

Lance shrugged. “I tried as hard as I could Allura, and it wasn’t good enough. And that’s okay. I mean I was upset about it yesterday because I had my hopes set on this, but it’s fine. The cargo pilot program here is top notch, and I have the highest score in the entire cohort. I’ll be able to do a lot of cool things.” 

“But is it what you want? Is being a cargo pilot what you’ve been dreaming of since before you even sent in an application to this place?” 

“It doesn’t matter what I want, it matters what I’m good at. I’m more useful as a cargo pilot, my test results already told me that. Even if I retake the exam I’m going to get the same result. This is how it was meant to be.” 

Allura searched Lance’s face for any sign that he was joking or trying to pull one over her, but he was being nothing but sincere and she could physically feel her heart breaking for him. “Lance, where is all this coming from? What happened to our deal? We both wanted this. We both said we’d do this. We’d both pass, and we’d both celebrate, we’d both get our badges together, and we’d both be going out into space doing exactly what we dreamed of doing. In the thick of the action. The pioneers of our generation. We promised that to each other, have you forgotten?” 

“Of course I haven’t forgotten,” Lance insisted. “Nothing’s made me happier than getting to see your name under Fighter Class when all of our scores were posted. And when they officially hand you your Fighter Class badge I’m going to show up to the ceremony and cheer louder than everyone there. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine where I am and we’ll both do great things.” 

Allura shook her head. “Why does it feel like you’re giving up? Like you don’t think you’re good enough to do better?”

“I’m not giving up, and I don’t want it to seem like I am. I’m just...not good enough to make it.” 

Suddenly, Allura was seeing the Lance that Hunk had been talking about — the version of himself that Lance had been trying so hard to hide from her. The one who secretly didn’t think he was as talented as those around him and thought he was being a martyr by stepping back and leaving the opportunity for those he felt truly deserved it. The one who made little self-deprecating jokes that held too much truth to really be called jokes. Allura knew what it was like to be afraid of the future and to think you didn’t have enough to accomplish what you needed. And she knew how important it was to have people around you helping you succeed. 

And it upset her to hear that Lance thought he wasn’t capable of anything he put his mind to. It infuriated her to see him sitting here in his room, alone, with his shoulders hunched and his dreams crumpled up at his feet. It wasn’t fair to him, and he deserved so much more than he thought. Lance needed someone to believe in him and to push him father than he himself thought he could go. And damn it all, Allura was going to be that person for him. 

So she grabbed one of the pillows on his bed and hit him across the face with it as hard as she could. 

“ _ A-Allura!!!” _ Lance shrieked, rubbing the side of his face. “What the hell are you doing!?” 

“I don’t want to hear this from you!” Allura scolded him. “This self-deprecating, I’m-not-good-enough, woe-is-me act that you’re pulling right now. This is not the Lance that I know. This isn’t the Lance who got a scholarship to come here and has an entire family waiting for him to come home for Christmas wearing that Fighter Pilot badge proudly. If you don’t believe in yourself, that’s fine. But  _ I _ believe in you, and goddammit I’m going to make sure you accomplish what you came here to do. Now get dressed.” 

Lance sighed. “Allura, I appreciate this but really it’s just not going to —  _ OW! _ Can you stop hitting me for two seconds!?” 

Allura ignored him and whacked him with his pillow again. “You believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself, and it was thanks to you that I even got this far. I’m a fighter pilot because of you and for a while I didn’t even believe that was possible. So, no, I’m not going to watch you sit here feeling sorry for yourself while your dreams slip from your fingers. Get up! I’m not giving up on you. You’re going to become a fighter pilot.” 

Lance stood to his full height and asked her with a crack in his voice, “And how you do you know that? How do you know I’m not going to try this again and just fail at it  _ again _ ? Then what?” 

Allura swallowed. “How did you know I’d make it? You didn’t, did you? You believed. Blind, total faith in me. That’s what you had, and it was enough to help me. I have blind, total faith in you. I know that if you try hard enough, you can do whatever you set your mind to. I know you can do this, but you have to meet me halfway.” 

She wasn’t sure what made her do it — maybe it was because all of her emotions were running high and she wanted desperately for Lance to understand just how much he meant to her and just how remarkable she thought he was — but she grabbed his face and pulled him down for a kiss. Poured all her love for him into that kiss because she wanted him to feel it. And the moment she felt him kissing her back, grabbing her waist, and pulling her against him, it was like everything between then had exploded and left behind a startling moment of clarity. All of those strong feelings she couldn’t name, all of that senseless desire to go above and beyond for him, had finally boiled down to this. She adored him. Every single hair on his head, every cell in his body, every last bit of raw talent he didn’t even know he had. 

It was that kind of adoration that made you want to stop the world just to give that person everything they could ever want. It didn’t matter how crazy it sounded or how much it took out of you for it to get done. It was all worth it. And suddenly she understood the depth of Lance’s feelings for her and why he tried so hard on her behalf. Everything made so much sense and all she wanted was to make everything right and make sure that Lance walked out of his first semester with his head held high. 

She broke their kiss and looked into Lance’s eyes as she spoke to him. “You are brimming with talent. There is so much sitting under the surface that’s just waiting to pour out and surprise you. You’re also an impossibly selfless and beautiful person. And even if you don’t comprehend all of that now, I’ll make sure you see all of it. You’re so important, Lance. You’re going to be doing great things. But I need you to try. And I need you to trust me. Just like I trusted you.” 

Lance smiled stupidly  and rested his forehead against Allura’s. “I feel like I’m dreaming….” 

Allura laughed and propped him as he tried to pretend to have wobbly knees and lean right into her. “I’m as real as it gets. And everything I said is real.” 

He let out a huge breath and stared at the papers he’d left on the bed. “Another retake, huh?” 

She turned his head back to her. “Remember what you told me. Don’t overthink. Don’t second guess. Don’t hesitate. Go for it if it feels right. Does this feel right?” 

Lance bit his lip and hugged her close again. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” 

Allura laughed and held her pinky up between them. “So let’s go get it. Together. Okay?” 

Lance linked their pinkies together and leaned in for one last kiss. “Alright, ‘Lura. I’ll bite. We’ve only got about a day to pull this off though.” 

“More than enough time.”  

* * *

 

They spent the entire day running the simulator over and over again. Allura would pull up his scores and stats after every run, go through all of his points and deductions, and work together to figure how to get them where they needed to be. Lance was the type to overcompensate and try too hard when he was nervous, so it quickly became clear why Lance would’ve performed just underneath where he needed to be. It reminded her of what Hunk had alluded to: that Lance really believed he had to overperform and show off in order for people to really believe he had the talent to back up his place here. 

But Allura left him with a long kiss before telling him as plainly as she could. “Don’t worry about impressing anyone but me. And to impress me, all you have to do is your best. I know your best is enough to take you wherever you want.” 

She truly wasn’t worried about him at all. Once she managed to kick the complicated maneuvers and showboating out of his system, Lance was pure and simple a very good pilot. Maybe not a prodigy and maybe not the most gifted pilot of his generation, but definitely good enough to grow into someone with the potential to do great things for a lot of people down the line. It was endearing to watch him smile and laugh through his completed simulations, to see how much he wanted this and how much this delighted him to his core. She only hoped that tomorrow would bring him that chance. 

After an entire day of practicing, Lance admitted that he was too nervous to sleep alone. So they gravitated towards Allura’s room, just like they had during the entire semester when they were trucking through their assignments together. Normally Lance would be careful to keep his distance and make sure that he wasn’t encroaching upon Allura’s space, but the moment she laid down in bed he didn’t even think before crawling into her arms and tucking his head underneath her chin. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled into her collarbone. “Is this okay?” 

Allura stroked the back of his hair and kissed his temple. “Of course. You can stay here until morning.” 

Lance sighed, leaving a shiver to run through Allura’s spine. “You’re perfect. Truly, honestly perfect. Thank you.” 

“I’d drop the world for you in a heartbeat Lance. You know that.” 

She spent the night whispering encouragements in his ear until he fell into a peaceful sleep right in her arms. When she woke up the next morning, her bed was empty and she saw a text from Lance telling her that he’d run off to the simulators to get in one more hour of practice before his retake. Allura sent him a long line of hearts and thumbs up before deciding that she should probably do something to busy herself for the next hour so that she wouldn’t stress herself out worrying over him. 

It was on the way back from the mess hall after having a meager toast and apple breakfast that she noticed the long line of plaques and trophies lining the walls of one of the hallways in the main building. Allura meandered about and noticed that most of them were given posthumously to various Galaxy Garrison offers in recognition of their service. She almost missed it as she walked by, but right in the middle of all of them was a small collection of trophies and plaques for her father, Alfor, in recognition of his service on the famous Expedition 10 flight. 

She sort of remembered Coran mentioning the fact that he had gotten a slew of awards and titles after he had passed, but that was during a time where Allura could barely stomach the mention of her father’s name before feeling like her entire world was bottoming out. She couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to realize they’d been right under her nose all this time. 

The halls were practically empty since most students had already purchased their flights home already, so Allura felt fine to sit in the middle of the hall and stare at them for a bit. There were a couple of black and white photos that managed to capture his boyish handsomeness that everyone always said he exuded. He was smiling into the camera, holding up his medals, standing with his Garrison buddies, and looking just like he did the last day she saw him. Perfectly immortalized. 

“They really gave you quite a spread here, didn’t they?” Allura said with a smile. “Bet you would’ve liked this. You always used to joke that with the amount of hours they made you put in they should’ve given you a trophy. Guess they gave you ten.” 

She laughed at herself and accidentally found herself drifting into a conversation with him. “I wish you’d warned me about how hard this was going to be. I mean I know you said it wasn’t going to be a challenge, but that feels like such an understatement now. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard for anything in my life. I almost can’t believe I’m sitting here. Fighter Class certified and everything.” 

Allura pointed to the lapel of her jacket. “It’s going to go right here. I won’t get it until Christmas break but it’s already being ordered so it’ll come in the mail sometime before New Years’. My schedule for next semester looks horrendous, but hopefully it’ll be alright. Coran checks up on me every week and is always helping me with my assignments. And I’ve got friends to help me through it so I won’t be by myself.” 

She started to play with the ends of her hair and smiled absently as she thought of Lance. “I met someone,” she whispered. “I know you hated whenever I brought boys to the house, but I think you would’ve liked Lance. He reminds me of you actually. Very silly. A little bit immature. But he’s so sweet, and kind, and wonderful. You both have the same horrid sense of humor, but don’t tell him I told you that. It’ll probably just encourage him. And I know you probably don’t want to hear me gush over this, but make sure to tell mum that he’s  _ really _ handsome. That kind of handsome that makes everything around him melt away.” 

She shook her head a little bit and rubbed at a small smudge on the display case. “I know it’s silly of me to be ranting to you like this, but I think I”m just nervous. You see, he’s taking his exam right now. To be a fighter pilot. It’s a retake and if he doesn’t pass this time it’s all over for him. And I know he’ll do well, I just always worry about him and when I worry I ramble.” Allura stopped and laughed. “Mum cleaned the entire house the day you were set to come back from your Expedition 10 flight. And she wouldn’t stop talking to me about just anything. You, work, the house, her neighbors. I sort of understand how she feels now.” 

Allura smiled up at her reflection in one of her father’s trophies. “I take that as a good sign. I mean, I really like him. I want him to accomplish everything he wants and get anything he wants. I’d break down walls if it meant I could do that for him. And I know he’d do the same. He’s a darling, dad, he really is. I really thought I wouldn’t be able to get this far without you here and Lance just comes swooping in and making everything better. I just want him to have this.”

“So….if you’re listening and have any pull where you are, I’d really appreciate some good vibes sent his way,” she smirked. “He gets nervous easily so he really needs it. If it helps he’s a big fan of yours! Read up all about you when you were still in space, you were one of his heroes. But no surprise he’s got really good taste.” 

Her laughing was interrupted by a text that came through on her phone. Just a quick “come over” from Lance, which was annoyingly devoid of any kind of emotion to let her know whether this was good or bad news. Allura pocketed her phone and brushed off her pants. “That’s him. Sounds like he’s all finished up so I should probably go meet him.” She pressed her fingers and pressed it against the glass. “I miss you. Violently. And I know we haven’t spoken for a bit but I want you to know that I’m doing alright. I’ll try to remember to bring Lance by so he can see all of your awards. I’m sure he’ll like that. And I’ll tell Coran to do all of the appropriate boyfriend grilling in your place. Don’t think you’ll need to ask him twice about that.”

She blew one last kiss at the display cases before running over to the sim labs. Allura made it to Simulator Twelve just as Montgomery was leaving with no Lance following behind her. Allura stumbled for a moment before straightening up into a salute. 

“Morning, cadet,” Montgomery smiled. “If you’re looking for Lance he’s right insite. Still sitting in the simulator in shock apparently.” 

“Is...is that a good thing?”

Montgomery patted Allura on the shoulder. “Why don’t you go ask him yourself? At ease, cadet. And enjoy your holidays.” 

Allura waited for Montgomery to turn the corner before she raced inside and opened the hatch of the simulator to find Lance sitting in the pilot’s seat, crouched over a stack of forms, and blankly reading over the words. 

He wasn’t saying anything so she crouched down in front of him to try and get a good look at his face. “Well?” Allura asked. “What does it say? Is it good news?” 

Lance rubbed a hand down his face and slowly shook his head. “I….Allura, I-I tried, I really did. I’m just….It didn’t really go….” 

She covered her mouth with both hands and felt her heart drop down to her feet as he hung his head. “”Lance,” she whispered. “Lance, no, no, no. Stop it. How could it not have been enough? You’re not serious are you? Are you? Lance I’m so sorry I thought for sure this would — ”

His tittering had cut her off and he couldn’t help from collapsing into a full blown cackle that had him almost sliding out of his chair. “Oh my  _ God _ your face like immediately fell once I told you, that is priceless! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so horrified.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “Lance! Don’t joke around like that! I’ve been worried sick about you!” 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head over anything,” Lance promised. He held up his forms and pointed to the seal in the corner. “I passed.” 

Allura screamed. “You passed!?!?” She grabbed the forms from him and almost started crying in relief as she looked at his amazing simulator scores and his registration forms for the Fighter Class program. “Oh my God, you passed!!!” 

He threw his hands in the air, bouncing in his seat. “I passed!!!!”

Allura couldn’t help herself. She jumped straight into his lap and pulled him in for a crushing kiss, ruined by the fact that they were both smiling and laughing too hard to even manage it properly. But Lance’s thumbs traced the apples of her cheeks and soon she was relaxing in his arms, playing with the hairs on the back of his neck, and feeling his body hum underneath her from the excitement of his accomplishment. And God, it was perfect. He was perfect. Everything was perfect and everything was righting itself into what it was always supposed to be. 

“You owe me my date now,” she muttered against his lips. “I don’t leave for London for another two days. I’m sure you can find some way to dazzle me in all that time.”

“Oh, so it’s a date now?” 

“If it wasn’t before, it is now. So up your game.” 

“Boy. A little eager, are we?” 

“What’s wrong with being eager? I believe you mentioned dinner, movies, and a drive. I’d still really like that.” 

Lance’s hands smoothed down the length of her body and settled on her hips. “Would you? Should I bring flowers then too? Get a color that’ll match your eyes?” 

“Oh, yes,” Allura smirked. “And then afterwards we can drive out to the desert again and get some alone time.” 

Lance gasped. “‘Lura! How scandalous! What would your dear father, may he rest in peace, say?” 

Allura smacked him in the shoulder. “That’s not what I meant. But good to know that’s on your mind.” 

“H-Hey, that’s not what  _ I _ meant when I said that! It’s not like I’m only thinking about that. I’m thinking about other things too. A lot of mature, upstanding, and gentlemanly things.” 

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Although if you’d like to put that on the tabe — ”

“You’re killing me over here!” Lance groaned. “A man can only take so much good news in one day before he implodes.” 

“Fair enough,” Allura decided. “Finding out you’re going to be a fighter pilot must be a real shock to the system.” 

“I still can’t believe it,” he chuckled. He grabbed her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “I’m a fighter pilot, ‘Lura.” 

“ _ We’re _ fighter pilots, Lance.” 

“We both did it,” he marveled. “They can’t stop the two of us. Can you imagine all the amazing things we’re going to get to do? All the things we’ll learn? All the people we’ll help? It’s almost scary to think about it.” 

“You won’t have to worry about a thing,” Allura promised. “We’ve gotten this far together, and we’ll keep going forward together. No need to be scared. I’ll be with you every step of the way. Cross my heart.” 

Lance snuggled up to the crook of her neck and left one last kiss there before holding her so fiercely she was sure he’d never let her go. “Perfect. I’ll keep my sights steady on you then.” 


End file.
